University Strike, Glasgow-Dumfries.

        The strike at UK universities goes on from strength to strength. To those who have shown solidarity with the strike, there is still a need to continue, and those who have not yet, should get behind the  strikers, as the action has moved nearer a successful conclusion, but it isn't there yet, solidarity can win the day. Some further info on what is happening at Glasgow University, Dumfries.

       Just a bit of information about the 4 days of industrial action planned this week at the University of Glasgow in Dumfries.
       1) First, the strike has been broadly successful. Employers' have been brought to the negotiating table - and talks begin tomorrow, something the union has long been asking for, but only got through industrial action. However, nothing has been decided and it is important the campaign stays as strong as possible to put as much pressure as possible on the employers representatives.
       2) We plan to have a picket on each day of the strike outside the main University of Glasgow buildings on the Crichton Campus. Please do op by and say hello.
        3) There will be a TEACH OUT at the Theatre Royal, Dumfries (Tuesday and Thursday), with talks and discussion away from the strictures of the University. If you want to run a session do let me know. Do come along and please let others know. It is free. There's also tea and coffee.
        4) Please use social media and your networks to let people know about the industrial action and the TEACH OUT.
 All the very best

Visit ann arky's home at radicalglasgow.me.uk

 

Call For Solidarity.

          As you may know there is industrial action planned across the University sector. There will be a picket outside some of the main buildings operated by the University of Glasgow on the Crichton campus on Thursday 22, Friday 23rd, Monday 26th, Tuesday 27th and Wednesday 28th February, from approximately 8.30am-11.30am (though on some days it may well go on longer and start earlier).
         We have also organised a TEACH OUT at the Theatre Royal, Shakespeare Street, Dumfries on the afternoons of Thursday (22nd), Friday (23rd), Tuesday (27th) and Wednesday (28th). The aim, is to show students that we care about education and we are not simply putting our feet up. It is a chance for more informal, experimental, less stressful and collaborative education. It is free for anyone to take part and we are open to more spontaneous events taking place in the space .
         We would love you to show support, if you can, by taking part in visiting the picket or taking part in the TEACH OUT or just dropping by for a tea and a chat and/or publicising the events by passing on the attached flier.

 

Visit ann arky's home at radicalglasggow.me.uk

A Place To Lay Your Head.

 

         A place of safety and comfort to lay your head is necessary for human dignity, it is not something we should have to aspire to, it is a human right, yet across this so called modern world, millions are denied that dignity, denied that right. Is it possible to satisfy that right in a capitalist society?  Interesting dates for Glasgow folks and Edinburgh folks, talk and discussion on Housing.

Building Urban Autonomy: The Dignified Fight for Homes in Mexico City
5.15-7.00pm, Thursday 2nd June, Room 916, Adam Smith Building, University of Glasgow
        Enrique Reynoso is an urban activist who has spent more than twenty-five years organising for housing rights and autonomous communities in Mexico City. He will discuss his work with the Francisco Villa Independent Popular Front, which is independent of political parties and affiliated to the Zapatista-inspired La Sexta (the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandona Jungle).
         Enrique will discuss the fight for homes in Mexico City, reflecting on a mass social movement which is involved in land occupations, collective house construction and autonomous organising in some of the poorest areas of Mexico City. As such, this event provides a rare opportunity to discover how the principles of Zapatismo are being translated in one of the largest urban conurbations in the world.
      Enrique's talk will be introduced by Neil Gray, University of Glasgow, and Katia Valenzuela uentes, Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice, University of Nottingham who will also translate. Organised in collaboration with the Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Group: http://edinchiapas.org.uk
The venue is fully accessible (lift to meeting room). ALL WELCOME.
Hosted by the Centre for the Study of Socialist theory and Movements
HOUSING IS A HUMAN RIGHT: Enrique Reynoso on the dignified fight for homes and autonomy in Mexico City and beyond
7pm Friday 3rd June, Quaker Meeting House, 7 Victoria Terrace, Edinburgh, EH1 2JL
       Enrique of the Popular Organisation of the Independent Left “Francisco Villa” will speak on this mass social movement which occupies land, builds social housing for the poorest people and promotes and organises self-managed grass-roots autonomy. Enrique has spent more than 25 years organising for housing rights and autonomous communities in Mexico City.
      The "Organización Popular Francisco Villa de Izquierda Independiente" is independent of political parties and affiliated to the Zapatista-inspired La Sexta. As such, this event provides a rare opportunity to discover how the principles of Zapatismo are being translated in one of the largest urban conurbations in the world.
FREE ALL WELCOME QUESTIONS & DISCUSSION
The venue is fully accessible (lift to meeting room).
Facebook event page https://www.facebook.com/events/1027607207293907/
Organised by Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Group: www.edinchiapas.org.uk

Visiut ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

To Save Pollok Park, Time Is Of The Essence.

        Where is the wrath, where is the righteous anger, where are the angry crowds? At the end of July, I posted a short piece about the plans by Glasgow University and Glasgow City Council, backed by almost £100,000 of lottery funding, (money collected from you and I.) to dig up Pollok Park, and re-create WWI trenches. Not only is it a grotesque intention, but it is the most inappropriate place for such a monstrosity. The work is scheduled to start this August, is it too late to show our disgust, or can we get the message across, that Pollok Park is not  a area for war games. They claim that people will be able to see what it was like in the trenches during that totally unnecessary blood bath. Utter nonsense, it will be a sanitised misrepresentation, where will the rats be, where will the mud and the blood be, where will the stench be, where will the agony and the barbarity be? This is just another way of glorifying war, of tidying it up, it will not bring home the truth of the utter barbarity and agony of war.

No place for war games.

      For those who would like a nice refreshment, in pleasant surroundings, while voicing their anger at this destruction of a beautiful park that belongs to the people of Glasgow, they can take themselves down to the Scotia Bar, at the bottom of Stockwell Street, where they can sign a petition against this insanity.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

RIB On The Move.

     RIB is on the move, Glasgow's own, longstanding, Radical Independent Bookfair is on the move, reaching into the far distant nether regions of the borders and will be in Dumfries in April. However, you can enjoy this  pop-up event right here in Glasgow also in April at Kinning Park Complex.

    Home and Away -

    Two April events from the Glasgow's Radical Independent Bookfair project...

HOME

Sunday 13-20 April

Kinning Park Complex

43 Cornwall street

Glasgow.

RiB - Black BOX

       Glasgow's Radical Independent Bookfair project presents 'black box'… (physically in the form of a black fold out booth and visually as a recorder of recent and past radical events…) this week long stand will have an array of materials squeezed into it including… new titles from AK Press, Angry Artworks t-shirts, Govanhill Baths' bags, second hand Unity books, Feral Trade coffee as well as old publications to swap, Document dvds to watch, customised stickers for kids and of course an array of other free materials.

       This stall will be part of a Broth Mix Cafe event organised by the Open Jar collective. A week long event where the main hall of Kinning Park Complex will be transformed into a cafe providing homemade soup and bread along with a series of free workshops, talks and performances.

The stall is open for the duration of the Broth Mix event - detail of all these related free events click here.

<http://ns13.net-hosted.com/%7Eemilycha/openjarcollective.co.uk/Images/Broth%20Mix%20Programme.pdf>

Stall open at these times...

sun 13th - 12-7pm

mon 14th - 12-5pm

tues 15th - 12-8pm

wed 16th - 12-5pm

thur 17th - 12-8pm

fri 18th - 12-5pm

sat 19th - 12-5pm

sun 20th - 12-6pm

AWAY

Wednesday 9 April

11am-5pm

University of Glasgow, Crichton Campus.

Dumfries.

RiB - travelling stall.

      Contemporary Anarchist Theory and Practice: Critical Perspectives School of Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Glasgow, Rutherford McCowan Building, Crichton Campus Bankend Road, Dumfries, DG1 4ZL (campus is approximately 2.5 miles from Dumfries train station)

     For the first time ever - we will be doing a stall outside of the Glasgow area! Trundling down to Dumfries with a small stall at this mini conference. The mini-conference/get-together is an opportunity to share research and critical practice. With ‘critical’ playing multiple roles, meaning either important, relevant/vital, analytical, supportive, evaluative or from opposing traditions.

I'm a better anarchist than you.

Speakers include:

Morgan Gibson (Queensland University)

Vicente Ordóñez Roig (Jaume I University, Castellón, Spain)

David Lamb (Hon Reader in Bioethics, Univ. Birmingham, Council member of

the Companion Animal Wel-fare Council)

Angela McClanahan (Edinburgh University)

Dek Keenan (Independent Labour Researcher)

Hartwig Pautz (Spirit of Revolt and University of the West of Scotland)

John Crossan (University of Glasgow)

Sotiris Frantzanas (University of Glasgow)

Hamish Kallin (University of Edinburgh)

Friend RiB on facebook here...

<https://www.facebook.com/pages/Glasgows-Radical-Independent-Bookfair-Project/250139438423326>

www.ribproject.org

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

A Date For Your Diary.

     On Wednesday 9th April 2014 to coincide with the visits of Morgan Gibson (Queensland) and Vicente Ordóñez Roig (Jaume I University, Castellón, Spain) to the Dumfries campus of the University of Glasgow there will be a symposium (or perhaps something similar with a slightly less pompous sounding title)  on the theme: “Contemporary Anarchist Theory and Practice: Critical perspectives”. With ‘critical’ playing multiple roles, meaning either important, relevant/vital, analytical, supportive, evaluative or from opposing traditions. 

      The venue will be in the School of Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Glasgow, Rutherford McCowan Building, Crichton Campus Bankend Road, Dumfries (it is about 2.5 miles from the train station to the Campus). It  will start at 11am and finish formally at 5pm, so that those travelling on the day by public transport from Glasgow, Stirling, Edinburgh and Carlisle, Newcastle and Lancaster can attend without missing any of the formal event.  

        If you wish to travel from further afar and need to stay over, some colleagues/friends/comrades up in Glasgow have offered accommodation and something might be available in Dumfries too. Please let me know ASAP. 

      As well as Vicente and Morgan, there is a strong line-up of activists and academics contributing (a brief line up will be available soon). We also inviting other contributions – it can be a formal presentation/paper or something different - so if you are interested, please send an abstract or a description and a title by Wednesday  19th March., though please let us know sooner if possible. The deadline for submitting completed papers, if you wish to have them circulated beforehand is Wednesday 26th March (this is by no means compulsory).

       The deadline for confirming attendance (for those not formally contributing) is also Wednesday 26th March (just so I know what size rooms to book and see if I can get any catering). 

      The event will be free for anyone to attend, however, I have not been able (as yet) to raise funds to subsidise travel.  

        For those not in a hurry back, there are some good pubs and reasonable eateries around Dumfries town centre, and so something in the evening might spontaneously arise. 

       If you have any questions, suggestions or advice, on any detail of the plan for this symposium (colloquium, gathering…), please let me know. 

All the very best 

Benjamin 

Dr Benjamin Franks,

Lecturer in Social and Political Philosophy,

School of Interdisciplinary Studies,

University of Glasgow,

Rutherford McCowan Building,

Crichton Campus,

Bankend Road,

Dumfries, DG1 4ZL

0 (044) 1387 702055

www.gla.ac.uk/schools/interdisciplinary/​staff/benjaminfranks

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

THE HETHERINGTON, AUSTRALIA STYLE.

       No matter where you go, the plan is austerity cuts. Cuts in education, health, social services are the norm across this corporate capitalist world. We in Europe are told it is a problem with the Euro, but in America and else where, the financial Mafia are still pulling the strings and that means cuts to all social spending. This little story is from Australia, which if you read the babbling brook of bullshit, the media, Australia is doing fine, and is not in recession. Of course that doesn't mean that they are exempt from the financial Mafia's world wide plan of "austerity cuts". This could be Glasgow University's Hetherington, Australian style.

This from discords.wordpress.com:

ABC News: Latrobe University students were protesting against funding and job cuts at the humanities faculty during Open Day at the university’s Bundoora campus.

The student union claims the university plans to axe 41 staff and 500 subjects. But as Professor John Dewar was talking to the media, marching students rounded a corner towards him. When they spotted the university head, the protesters chased him into a building and up through a corridor, where he was protected and surrounded by security and staff. Professor Dewar was jostled by the crowd of protesters before staff and security could whisk him away into a nearby room. Students thought they had him holed up as they chanted: “Come out John” and formed a barricade. But Mr Dewar was able to escape the situation by using the university’s underground tunnel network, and was guided back to his office.

Read the full article HERE:

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