The Day Noam Chomsky Came To Town

Posted on by bob

From the Archive: Agitate! Educate! Organise! The Day Noam Chomsky Came To Town

Originally published in the Alternative Strategies issue of Line

1

When a seventy year old Hamish Henderson sang Freedom Come All Ye at the Pearce Institute in Govan, Glasgow in January 1990 , it was the ultimate folk-song cabaret. Here, after all, was the man who’s co-founding of the School of Scottish Studies in 1951 had kick-started the Scottish folk revival, and here was singing the song he’d penned that many believe to be Scotland’s real national anthem (with a small n, for Henderson was nothing if not internationalist in outlook). Henderson sang it too in his own slightly cracked tones not as part of some officially sanctioned flagship event for Glasgow’s status as European City of Culture that year, but for a low-level grassroots initiative that brought together art and activism in an event that would prove to be of huge trickle-down significance. Continue reading →

The Govan Project

Posted on by bob

mix 2off

Further details. Website: commgood.wordpress.com

The real experts on issues that affect ordinary people are to be found nearest the problem. Participatory Action Research, is about listening to these experts at source and attempting to. First. Find ways of working with each other Second. Find our own solutions to problems. Third. How do we put our plans into action.

Join us at the above events to find out more.

The earlier session is about Participatory Action Research which will be ongoing . The film/discussion is part of a series that will be showing every 2 weeks, on finding inspiration from what others have and can achieve through community organising.

“No. This is a Genuine Revolution”

Posted on by bob

By David Graeber and Pinar Öğünç

December 26, 2014

Posted in: Kurdistan, Middle East, Politics/Gov., Reimagining Society, Syria

Professor of Anthropology at the London School of Economics, activist, anarchist David Graeber had written an article for the Guardian in October, in the first weeks of the ISIS attacks to Kobane (North Syria), and asked why the world was ignoring the revolutionary Syrian Kurds.

Mentioning his father who volunteered to fight in the International Brigades in defence of the Spanish Republic in 1937, he asked: “If there is a parallel today to Franco’s superficially devout, murderous Falangists, who would it be but ISIS? If there is a parallel to the Mujeres Libres of Spain, who could it be but the courageous women defending the barricades in Kobane? Is the world -and this time most scandalously of all, the international left- really going to be complicit in letting history repeat itself?”

Continue reading →