***

Benefit Film Night for the Diaz and Bolozaneto survivors.

Genova Legal Forum and Activist Trauma Support

Films: ‘OP. Genova 2001. Public Order during the G8′ & ‘The Diaz raid Genoa 2001′ & local activist shorts

Followed by a Q & A session about the latest developments in the trials and discussion regarding the implications of Genoa for our wider movement and the 2009 G8 Summit in La Maddalena, Italy. Speakers from Genova legal Forum & Activist Trauma Support

Friday 30th May 2008

8:00pm start

Casadh

13 Newmarket Square

Dublin 8

Suggested donation: 3/4 euros

no one turned away through lack of funds

Protestors at the 2001 G8 in Genova faced massive police brutality. The trials of the police involved in the Diaz and Bolzaneto cases are nearing their conclusion. At the end of July the judge in the Bolzaneto trial will deliver his verdict, while the Diaz trial will enter it’s closing sequence. Around 150 of the survivors of Diaz and Bolzaneto will gather in Genova to mark these events.

Activist Trauma Support are planning to be in Genova to offer support to the survivors during this period. This benefit will raise money to enable this support to take place.

‘OP. Genova 2001. Public Order during the G8′

Produced by the Secretariat of the Genoa Legal Forum.

OP is a detailed examination of the events of the 20th of July 2001, when marches and rallies around the red zone were heavily attacked by the police. Through maps, recordings of police radio communications and other evidence gathered in the course of the trial against 25 demostrators, the film exposes the way the police forces turned the streets of Genoa into a war zone. Who was the real threat to Public Order at the 2001 G8?

‘The Diaz raid Genoa 2001′

This film of the Diaz raid, which took place at the end of the Genoa G8 in July of 2001, tells a more complete story than previous footage has been able to. It was compiled from material taken from the ‘Genova Super Video’ which has been instrumental in the course of the diaz trial and includes footage from the San Martino Hospital before victims were taken to Bolzaneto.

Check out the films on the web at: http://processig8.org/Video/OP.html

Kevin Doyle, Cork, Member of the Cork Anti-Bin Tax Campaign (HASC), Irish Writers’ Union, Free The Old Head of Kinsale and the WSM.

The forthcoming Grassroots Gathering offers us the opportunity to create a broad network of anarchists and libertarian socialists here in Ireland. As such, it is a major step forward. I’m looking forward to taking part. Let the motto be ‘We have a new world in our hearts”; the method – solidarity and direct action.

Laurence Cox, Dublin / Maynooth (community researcher, www.iol.ie/~mazzoldi/toolsforchange/)

I’ve been involved in networking between social movements in Ireland (community, ecological, political, alternative, anti-globalisation, spiritual) for several years. I think this is an important time to be talking to each other, with the development not only of “globalisation”, recession and war but the growing strength of movements for a better world. If we do not connect with and learn from each other, we will remain dependent on the goodwill of the powerful and fragmented as special- interest groups.

Jason Brannigan, Belfast. Anarcho-Syndicalist, shop steward and member of SIPTU, delegate to the Belfast & District Trades Union Council, anti-war activist and participant in the Belfast Anti-War group, member of the Belfast Local of the Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation;

I hope that the first libertarian network meeting will help bring together anarcho-syndicalists, anarchists and libertarians in Ireland to co-operate and support each other in the practical task of building a non heirarchical revolutionary movement in Ireland. As another endorser has already said our slogan should be ‘a new world in our hearts’ and our method solidarity and direct action. Couldn’t have put it better.

Aileen O’Carroll, Dublin, member of WSM, DARG and Liberties Against the Bin Tax

A few years ago I spend Mayday at an anarchist gathering in Bradford. It was brought together anarchists of all types, from the road protesters to the trade unionists, and of all ages, from those who remembered the misery of Thatcher to those who were fighting the blandness of Blair. It was the first meeting of its type and everybody there said how good it was that people were able to break down the barriers that has existed between them. I don’t think in Ireland we face the same problem of sectarianism as they faced in England. But we have problems of our own, chief of which is our isolation from each other. We all do good work in our own circles but the circles don’t often interlink. I’m looking forward to this meeting in the hope that it can be the first step in building a walking talking living radical network in Ireland.

Eamonn Crudden, Maynooth Videomaker interested in low budget documentary as a way of exploring social and political issues. Have done videos/tv pieces about legalisation of Heroin / Multiculturalism / Prague Protests etc. Presently working on dvd about Genoa Protests and related issues. Also involved with establishing Indymedia in Ireland.

Think the gathering is a useful idea as many not involved in or members of organisations or groups have met repeatedly in and around ‘action’ in the last couple years without time for reflection or discussion about possible future concerns and actions.

James McBarron, Cork, agitator

Well wouldn’t it be great if all those people who advocate bottom up ways of organising, total open democracy etc. got together had a yarn and worked out ways of helping each other sharing information and ideas etc. The Grassroots gathering is it and I’ll definitely be there.

Shane Dunphy, Monaghan (Course Leader, Applied Social Studies, Monaghan Institute of Further Education and Training.)

I have been interested in social movements and anti- globalisation strategy for some time, and was involved in the Ireland from Below* meeting a couple of years ago. I believe that the only way that we can change things is to mobilise as a group, and the only way to do that, is to start talking. * see http://www.iol.ie/~mazzoldi/toolsforchange/ifb.html

Deirdre Hogan, Dublin, anarchist, activist in the Dublin Abortion Rights Group and previously active in the Anti-Racism Campaign and Residents Against Racism.

I think the grassroots gathering will be a great opportunity to meet other libertarian activists and to try to organise together in a way that will make our voices stronger and more effective.

Richard K. Moore, Wexford (anti-globalization writer: http://cyberjournal.org)

Over the past few years I’ve been developing an analysis of what globalization is really about, through dialog with all sorts of experts and would-be experts, from ‘everyday folks’, to professors of history and economics, to activists and movement leaders. The conclusion I’ve reached is that globalization is basically a global power grab by a corporate elite, which aims to destroy liberal democracies as we’ve known them and install power and authority in a corporate global regime. The only way to oppose this development is through the kind of bottom-up network which this gathering seeks to promote.

Gregor Kerr, Dublin, member of the WSM and active in many campaigns over the past few years, most notably as Secretary of the successful Federation of Dublin Anti Water Charge Campaigns and more recently an activist in the Anti Racism Campaign.

As a member of the Irish National Teachers Organisation, I have been active in campaigning against ‘social partnership’. I look forward to the establishament of a network through which we will be able to assist each other in our various campaigns and struggles and share our experiences in those struggles

Nancy Serrano, Limerick, Gluaiseacht,

I want to be attend the weekend conference on non-hierarchical structures because I want to learn how to bridge the gap between understanding what a non-hierarchical structure is, and practically functioning in this way. I feel like too many people dimiss anarchy etc. because they cannot find ways of operating in this manner under the rules they are used to following in their day-to-day lives. And because this doesn’t fit into how we’re used to living our lives,( .i.e. being competitive, majority votes win, deciding for others, letting others decide for us) people trap themselves into not looking for answers to these problems, beyond their present reality.

Andrew Flood, Dublin,anarchist, maintainer of the struggle site and involved in the ‘anti-capitalist globalisation’ movement since the 1st encounter in Chiapas, 1996

I’m hoping that the gathering will greatly improve communications and solidarity between different struggles in Ireland. In particular I think it represents a chance for activists in different spheres of activity that are all too often isolated from each other to come into contact and build for the future.

The Path, Dublin

Would like to add my name to the list of endorsers. A horizontal structure of aligned groups leads to positive interaction and fresh ideas being generated. From my perspective I’ve always been encouraged by the medium of freesheets and fanzines – they’re a total grassroots culture, and their potential as an agent for change and as a vibrant organic culture is immense. Any meeting of minds that encourages collective action yet at the same time recognises the differences and diversity of the individuals and groups involved has to be a good thing. Count me in.

Oh yeah the [path] is a regular freesheet distributed around Dublin, dedicated to culture, truth, freedom and pleasure. Articles/topics covered in the past include Monto, CCTV, Genoa, the M50 manifesto, the Scum manifesto, the human audiosphere, suburban life, anti-TV, the Limerick Soviet, the future, and the present, among others. If you dont pick up the paper version you can read it online at http://thumped.com/thepath, there are some photos and videos on the site also.

Garth, Belfast, Secretary, Anarcho Syndicalist Federation Hope this project will enable libertarian / anti authoritarian groups to better co ordinate their efforts and present a cohesive alternative to top down organisation

Robert Allen, An Talamh Glas/BLUE (www.bluegreenearth.com)

Joe Moffat Dublin

Hello all, this is a call to support a Grassroots Gathering that will happens in Dublin on November 24 and 25. As a political activist committed to a participatory empowering mode of class struggle, I think its essential that all like minded people share their experiences and perhaps resources. Personally I hope that this GG can allowing a popularising of our shared beliefs. Stay well and keep on truckin.

Al, Co. Down, co-editor of ‘Resistance’ (anarchist bulletin)

I endorse the aims and objectives of the ‘Libertarian Network’ in the hope that, among other things, it will help improve relations between individuals and/or groups wishing to create the conditions for a broad-based anarchist movement in Ireland.

Oisín Gilmore, Shankill, Dublin

Ireland lacks any popular radical organisation/movement that has any coherent agenda at the moment. And I, as an advocate of liberty, think that an anti-authoritarian grassroots movement is the way to go. This Gathering has the potential to get this movement started Contact:oisg@hotmail.com, (087)9290163

Alan MacSimoin, Dublin, member of SIPTU and the WSM

I look forward to a network where libertarian activists can seek advice and assistance from others, and share lessons learnt in the multitude of struggles for a better world.

Davie Philips, Dublin, Sustainable Ireland Co-operative

I think we need an inclusive, decentralised approach to networking the grassroots in Ireland and therefore support this initiative.

Dermot Sreenan Dublin Secretary of the Dublin Anti-Bin Tax Campaign, Activist, Anarchist, Member of the WSM.

I think that it’s very important that strong links are established with libertarian activists – as we all come from a bankground of having to deal with the struggles to resist the erosion of peoples rights. I think the unity and coherency that will come from the Grassroots gathering shall set a good example of how to go about changing the world.

Brian Durney Naas, Kildare, editor and maintainer of Rebelweb

I think this is a unique project that can only further strenghten our movements in Ireland through solidarity and networking. I have high hopes for the project and look forward to the outcome. contact: durneys@gofree.indigo.ie web: www.rebelweb.cjb.net

Conor Mc Loughlin, Dublin – independent Music producer, DJ, anarchist and activist.

As an active member of the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Campaign Against Service Charges I have come to appreciate the crucial importance of democratic co ordinated grass roots action. We have to move beyond the limited “not in my backyard” to build effective links between individuals and groups committed to a new way of organising. Conor@krossphader.com www.krossphader.com

Nestor McNab, Rome, Italy, (member A-Infos Collective)

I would like to wish you all every success in your activities. The GG will hopefully be a valuable organisational tool in the fight against liberalist globalisation. Unfortunately, as I live abroad, I will be unable to participate in its activites. nestor_mcnab@yahoo.co.uk www.geocities.com/nestor_mcnab/

[PDF version]

Friends,

The last ten years have seen an upsurge in radical activity. From the Zapatistas in Mexico, to the anti-road protests, to the campaigns against the Bin Tax and Reclaim the Streets actions to anti-incinerator/dump struggles and the mass demonstrations against the WTO and IMF in Seattle, Prague, Quebec and Genoa, people have been organising to take back control of their lives.

We’ve all been inspired by the way actions like these have brought so many different people together, organised as equals and without hierarchy. This wave of increasing mobilisation has offered fierce resistance to the notion that the world must be ruled from above by a tiny elite of bankers, politicians and billionare tycoons, showing how millions of people can effectively organise without them.

In Ireland, although there have been many campaigns on these issues, we haven’t always been as successful at keeping campaigns open and decentralised, in getting a radical message across or in avoiding the co-optation, fragmentation and professionalisation of activism. That’s why we* think it’s time to set up a new bottom-up (grassroots, libertarian, anarchist, participatory, anti-authoritarian) network.

This network would

- Be based on the principle that people should control their own lives and work together as equals, as part of how we work as well as what we are working towards.

- Within the network this means rejecting top-down and state-centred forms of organisation (hierarchical, authoritarian, expert-based, Leninist etc.) We need a network that’s open, decentralised, and really democratic.

- Call for solutions that involve ordinary people controlling their own lives and having the resources to do so: the abolition, not reform, of global bodies like the World Bank and WTO, and a challenge to underlying structures of power and inequality.

- Organise for the control of the workplace by those who work there.

- Call for the control of communities by the people who live there.

- Argue for a sustainable environmental, economic and social system, agreed by the people of the planet.

- Working together in ways which are accessible to ordinary people, particularly women and working-class people, rather than reproducing feelings of disempowerment and alienation within our own network.

This won’t stop us from working with other groups, of course. We still think it’s essential that, when we campaign against the effects of economic globalisation, we have as many people as possible on board. So we will continue to work with NGO’s for example, even if they spend as much time attending summits as protesting against them.

But we think that it’s time for us to start talking to each other and making our voices heard as a distinct trend within the movement. So we’d like to invite you to a meeting on 24th November in The Teachers Club, 36 Parnell Square, Dublin, where we can talk about what we have in common and what we might gain from working together. While we will be bringing some proposals to the meeting we think it’s important that there is plenty of room for your ideas as well and that decisions should only start to be made once everyone in agreement with this letter has a chance to participate.

Signed by

Nick Jones (Irish Mexico Group – personal capacity)
Eoin Ó Broin (Gluaiseacht – personal capacity)
Laurence Cox (Maynooth community researcher)
Members of Workers Solidarity Movement
Members of Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation
Members of Alliance of Cork Anarchists

* The initial group (above) calling this gathering includes men and women from Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Derry and Limerick. We intend to dissolve once it is underway so that the gathering itself can freely choose if, how and who will continue to co-ordinate the network.

Proposed structure for gathering

We propose that our gathering take place over two days, the first to be comprised of general discussions between those who attend as below and the second, for those interested in ensuring this process continues, to set up some form of formal co-ordination structure.

Agenda – Day 1 Saturday Nov 24 2001 &endash; Teachers Club – (reg 11.00 sharp)

Three sessions each of which will comprise a very short introduction followed by small group facilitated discussions of the topic with key points being noted and displayed around the venue for people in the other groups. This method has been used with some success at similar gatherings internationally

Session 1 – (Introduction Nick Jones)
Who are we and why have we come here

Session 2 – (Introduction by Eoin Ó Broin)
The what, why and when of bottom up organisation

Session 3
(Introduction by Laurence Cox) – What can we do together in the future

Agenda Day 2 &endash; Sunday 25 Nov – Spacecraft – (Start time to be announced)

Discussion of concrete proposals of structure and activity for those who agree with the points outlined in the letter. We encourage groups and individuals to submit written proposals in advance of this session but also hope that the previous days workshops will result in new ideas which can be made concrete at these discussions.

Day 1 of this event will be held Saturday 24th November in the downstairs hall in the Teachers Club, 36 Parnell Sq, Dublin.

Day 2 will take place in Spacecraft, North Wall. Dublin

This is a preliminary notice to which changes may be made. Contact us to make sure you are told of these changes and also so we can have an idea of how many are likely to attend and plan accordingly.

To receive further updates about this gathering by email send an email to
grassrootsgathering-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

By post send a letter to Grassroots gathering at any of the PO Boxes below

Belfast &endash; c/o PO Box 505, Belfast, BT12 6BQ
Dublin – c/o PO Box 1528, Dublin 8
Cork – c/o PO Box 31, Sorting Office, Cork

By phone ring Andrew at 087 9934150 — By email contact us at GGcontact@yahoogroups.com

More information on the web at http://grassrootsgathering.freeservers.com (This site is no longer maintained).

The first Grassroots Gathering took place in Dublin, Sat 24th Nov 2001. About 80 people attended and amongst other things decided to hold an anti-war demonstration at Shannon airport and that the next Gathering would bein Cork over Easter. Below is the page that was set up to advertise it, for an account of what happened scroll further down the page.

Invite to the First Gathering

People endorsing the first Gathering

PDF poster advertising the first Gathering

Timetable for Grassroots Gathering

Our gathering will take place over two days, the first to becomprised of general discussions between those who attend as belowand the second, for those interested in ensuring this processcontinues, to set up some form of formal co-ordination structure.

Agenda – Day 1 Saturday Nov 24 2001; Teachers Club – (reg.11.00 sharp).

Three sessions each of which will comprise a very short introduction followed by small group facilitated discussions of the topic with key points being noted and displayed around the venue for people in the other groups. This method has been used with some success at similar gatherings internationally

11.00; Registration starts It is VERY important to arrive well before the start of the firstsession at 11.30 so that you can register and so that we can dividepeople into discussion groups.

Session 1 – (Introduction Nick Jones) 11.30 – 1.00 Who are we and why have we come here

Session 2 – (Introduction by Eoin Ó Broin) 14.00 -15.30 The what, why and when of bottom up organisation

Session 3 (Introduction by Laurence Cox) 15.45 – 17.00 What can we do together in the future

Sunday Nov 25th Spacecraft (North Wall, more details and map available Saturday).

The Sunday meeting is for people who agree with the gathering statement, see end of post. Starting at 11.30 to end around 15.00. People need to bring their own lunch.

A chance to get to grips with ideas like feminism, anarchism, socialism, and explore where they converge/collide, how they shape our view of society and inform our choices in the struggle for a different world. The workshops will have an emphasis on popular education moving beyond assumed understanding of knowledge to a space of communication sharing and learning. Whether you’re coming fresh to these discussions or an old dog seeking new tricks we hope in these sessions you’ll have something to contribute & something to gain…

Militant research

Militant Research aims to generate knowledge and theory from the point of view of everyday experience and collective resistance. In this session we’ll explore the relationship between activism and theory and the concept and practice of militant research in particular.

Biotechnologies in Ireland and Britain, Food Sovereignty and Climate Crisis around the world

Agrofuels being grown to replace petroleum are displacing food crops across the planet, causing a global shortage of food, concentration of corporate power, and human rights violations. Big biotechnology corporations are planning new solutions to climate crisis and the oil crisis which prolong consumer capitalism and protect the interests of elites. This workshop will explore these issues and ask what kinds of action can be taken.

*

(1) Timeline of the ‘Movement of movements’
*

(2) ABCs of social change
*

(3) Militant Research
*

(4) What would it mean to win?
*

(5) Biotechnologies, food sovereignty and climate crisis
*

(6) Migrants in the movement
*

(7) The war against war

(8) Community garden wander

(9) Social centres network update

(10) The ‘gathering of gatherings’: round-up from a season of meets

(1) Catching up on who and what we are

(2) Going places: strategy and the Grassroots movement

(3) Solidarity? Building a healthy movement culture

Catching up on who and what we are

As movements take their course, people’s lives also take their course; at one time entangled, at another time these trajectories can become estranged. So maybe sometimes we should take a moment to look at where the various nodes of our movements are at, and at what you might have missed if you were looking the other way.

Geography comes in here too: before the Grassroots Gatherings went into hibernation (this one’s the first since 2005), they were prided on rotating between different places and different organisers; this went alongside the strengthening of links between activists on the banks of the Liffey, the Lagan, the Lee, the Shannon and the Corrib – to think only of Gathering venues.

Have we kept on building these links? Or, without enough networking, have we retreated inside more parochial horizons? What are we all getting up to in our niches around the country?

And who is ‘we’ anyway?

Do the famous Grassroots Gathering principles still serve as a meaningful rallying point for our loose coalition against capitalist globalisation? If these principles mark out our ‘identity’ from anybody else struggling for another world, it is in their emphasis on horizontal, libertarian ways of organising. They say as much about process as about goals: for “People should control their own lives and work together as equals, as part of how we work as well as what we are working towards.”

Has this emphasis on a particular kind of process stood the test of time? Does it still form a cement for our endeavours, and tie us together as we try to move forward? Does it amount to more than a ‘nice-ification’ of politics? And how does an obsession with ‘openness’ and horizontality, and with the rejection of leadership structures and expertise, equip us to make a difference in an era defined by the global battle between an out of control, neoliberal capitalism on the one hand, and the future of humanity and of the planet on the other?

Going places: strategy and the Grassroots movement

The Oxford English Dictionary describes a movement as a “A course or series of actions and endeavours on the part of a group of people working towards a shared goal; an organization, coalition, or alliance of people working to advance a shared political, social, or artistic objective.” Implicit in this definition is the subject of strategy: just how the collective in question intends to try and achieve its desired social change.

But if a Martian, interested in how social forces worked among Earthlings, descended to our planet today, would s/he find obvious the strategic outlook of the ‘grassroots movement’ in Ireland – that loose coalition emerging into visibility from the end of the 1990s, united around a rejection of capitalist globalisation and a desire for bottom-up, rather than top-down solutions to changing the world?

At the turn of the decade, many of us were happy to get swept away with summit protest fever, and scream and scrawl “We are winning!” across various cities of the globe. A few years on, many of the same people wouldn’t be caught dead at a summit protest. (Let alone talk about winning.)

And for a while, opposing Gulf War II seemed like a real focal point for struggle; but this sense of opportunity turned to disillusionment, and other focal points were sought.

Solidarity with the victims of Shell in Erris was tangible and close enough to home for some, marking a break with ‘mere activism’ in favour of ‘real class struggle’. More of us have answered this break towards the ‘real world’ down the road, with bids to build our own worlds, starting now; to carve out spaces like Seomra Spraoi, autonomous from the logic of capital, and embracing the logics of creativity, life, fun and freedom.

The contrast between these two paths echoes that old adage of anarchist thought (recently revisited in much wider movement dialogues) that human emancipation will be achieved not just through resistance – through ‘negative’ action – but also through the ‘positive’ action involved in building a new world in the shell of the old; not just seizing power, but destroying power, and constituting something better in its place.

Consciously or not, such radically different approaches to revolutionary action coexist in our midsts. How do we balance them?

The Grassroots Gathering principles give us a sketchy consensus around a desired political destination; but what is our roadmap? What is our strategy for getting there?

Solidarity? Building a healthy movement culture

How can we address the things that undermine solidarity within the grassroots movement?.

How do we create a situation where we have room to disagree and differ without this fracturing our solidarity?

Why is this a movement issue? Disagreements can fracture solidarity, create a climate of mistrust and unease, lack of respect and low morale.

This forum can be used to look at how we can create a movement culture, a way of doing things where it is good and beneficial to have disagreements, that these are received openly and engaged with and also that they are expressed in a manner that does not undermine each other’s work.

If divergences and disagreements are turned into something that we engage with this can foster debate we can learn from, and be part of a healthy movement culture.

An important part of Grassroots Gatherings is that they create a space where people and groups with diverse experiences and perpectives on creating a more just and equal society can learn from each other and find common ground. As part of this, the organisers have invited a number of community based activists and workers to discuss their experiences of creating radical change from below. Activists involved in housing and tenants’ rights, environmental struggles, educational initiatives and justice campaigns will join together to discuss, in three linked sessions, the topic: ‘Radical civil society and the state: hopes, fears and experiences’.

The sessions will draw on the rich and varied experiences within community based activism to reflect both upon its history, and on some of the most pressing contemporary issues faced by activists and workers in this area. In doing so we also want to trace out some strategies for the future and find reasons for hope in this vital arena of Irish activism.

Sessions:

(1) Radical civil society and the state: hopes, fears and experiences

(2a) What do we know?

(2b) Is what we’re doing working?

(3) Plenary

The Grassroots Gatherings – an institution of the movement-building seen in Ireland post-2000 – are coming out of hibernation this June Bank Holiday weekend in Dublin. But it won’t be quite like before…

The story so far

The upsurge in social movement struggles around the turn of the century, from the streets of Seattle to the barrios of Argentina, from the townships of South Africa to the docks of South Korea, set the tone for much of the oppositional politics seen in the 2000s. Drawing clear lines around such moments is always difficult: establishing when something has peaked, when something has hit a plateau, and when something is in decline. But UK-based collective The Free Association captured a widespread sense of unease regarding this historical continuum in summer 2007 when they observed that “the ‘we are winning’ sentiment of the couple of years following Seattle has disappeared and been replaced by, at best, head-scratching and soul-searching. More a case of WTF than WTO…”

The social movements landscape of Ireland did not go untouched by this chain of global events: we’ve had our WTO moments and more recently our WTFs. From 2001 – a highpoint of the international wave of struggle – a key local symbol of global developments was the Grassroots Gatherings, open get-togethers for anyone who wanted to transform Irish society and the world in radical ways – ‘grassroots’ ways, in their focus on real democracy, and bottom-up methods, in keeping with the ethos of global networking bodies born in the turn of the century moment such as People’s Global Action (PGA). Though never really intended as organising platforms, the Gatherings made up a key hub of Irish movement-building and action: reclaiming the streets, building social centres, resisting war, environmental destruction and EU neoliberalism, the networks formed around the Grassroots Gatherings took their place in the global uprising against capitalism.

But reflecting the collapse of that ‘we are winning’ sentiment internationally, the Gatherings themselves had stalled by the end of 2005. It’s not as if this marked the death of Irish anti-capitalism – far too many good things have happened in the meantime, and too many great people have got on board for this to be true – but the sense of distance from the heady days of the early part of the decade has become stronger. Lots has changed since Seattle.

So why resurrect the Grassroots Gathering in 2008? Falling back on forms that have already broken down, until they break down again, is a self-defeating strategy. It’s what you might do when you have no strategy at all. We need a time capsule back to 2003 or 2004 – to a happy-clappy lucky dip of the same old workshops on the same old campaigns, skill-shares and alternative lifestyle ideas – like we need a hole in the collective head.

But unless we want to wallow in cynicism, and bail out of history like so many broken, bitter ex-radicals before us, what we do need is a space in which to be critical about our mistakes and handicaps, rather than just look back on them with a baleful eye; to learn from them, and to start to look forwards and outwards.

Maybe this means admitting that the forces set in motion at the turn of the decade have run their course. Maybe it doesn’t. Maybe it means we can’t speak of a ‘movement of movements’ anymore. Or maybe we can. Maybe it means that the idea of a ‘Grassroots Gathering’ is obsolete.

But one thing it definitely means is this: amid the legacy of the turn of the century moment, a political sensibility (and maybe even a critical mass of people) now exists here that didn’t exist ten years ago: one that’s committed to radical social change, but not trapped in the dismal cul de sacs of Leninist, Stalinist and other dogmas. Whatever else has happened, we have broken through the supposed ‘end of history’ of the 1990s. Our local experience of post-2000 anti-capitalism has been idiosyncratic (compared to wider trends, the course of Irish history often is); without the same movement traditions to draw upon as elsewhere, we reached our high-points later, and while some other nodes in the global network have even collapsed, ours hasn’t. Activists from overseas sometimes remark that the movement in Ireland seems fresh and outward-looking, unburdened by much of the baggage found elsewhere.

It may be that our situation is marked as much by opportunity as by defeat. So what are we going to do about it?

What’s happening?

While this Grassroots Gathering, like past ones, retains a vital element of straight ahead ‘popular education’ – with workshops on themes as diverse as Militant Research and Biotechnology – running through it are also some more focused workshop streams.

One of those ‘streams’ looks outwards: ‘Radical civil society and the state: hopes, fears and experiences’ is geared not so much towards the concerns of a typical Grassroots Gathering activist milieu, but towards those of community workers and activists, who will join us at this Gathering, and whose struggles against the vicissitudes of Irish society parallel the goals of the Grassroots Gatherings.

Another stream looks forwards and, to some extent, inwards: ‘Thinking about the Grassroots Movement’ takes in sessions on strategy; on how to create movement cultures of respect and solidarity; and on the question: across our uneven efforts to build networks regionally, nationally and globally, who are we, anyway, and what is it that unites us?

While some workshops are yet to be finalised, a list of confirmed sessions is below. Follow the links for more information and blurbs on workshops and streams. Watch this space for the final timetable, coming soon. Fun and games throughout the weekend provided with help from Electronic Resistance, Seomra Spraoi and friends.

Where?

Ground zero for GG 2008 is in the heart of Dublin’s Liberties: the building’s called Casadh, and it’s at 13, Newmarket Square, D8. See map, attached (Casadh is opposite Dublin Food Co-op, marked on the map.)

Other stuff

Take a look at our wish-list if you’d like to help out. We might even have a few openings for last minute workshop proposals, so don’t be shy about dropping us a line. We hope to make Grassroots Gathering 2008 a child-friendly space. We also hope to accommodate anyone with special needs, so if there’s anything we need to know, get in touch as soon as you can.

Contact

grassrootsgathering08@gmail.com for all correspondence; or

Tel: +353 85 724 3832

Links

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