In order to propose any uses of the building (meetings, events, workshops, etc) you must attend a user group meeting and submit your proposal to the group. The agenda is open and minutes are sent to the LARC users email list.

In order to propose any uses of the building (meetings, events, workshops, etc) you must attend a user group meeting and submit your proposal to the group. The agenda is open and minutes are sent to the LARC users email list.

]]> http://www.londonarc.org/archives/281/feed 0 http://www.londonarc.org/archives/271 http://www.londonarc.org/archives/271#comments Wed, 25 Apr 2012 15:04:25 +0000 patrick http://www.londonarc.org/?p=271 Spring HacktionLab 2012 London Low Down

Come play with technology. We’ll learn and share how to make it work for us!

HacktionLabs are learning spaces to experiment and share knowledge. This event is organised by a network of people with a focus on using communications and information technology in the name of social justice.

The Spring 2012 HacktionLab in London is a weekend of workshops and discussions with an open invite to all.

The focus of the event is on Free Software, alternative media production and fighting to protect our digital freedoms. This event also features the launch of our new website, Tech Tools for Activism, so please do have a look at that: http://techtoolsforactivism.org

Friday Night 7pm onwards – Welcome night – Social and Film Screening

Come meet other participants at this free film screening and social event. Includes launch party for Tech Tools for Activism more info at – http://techtoolsforactivism.org

Dissident Island Radio will be hosting their 103rd show in the basement, and people will be welcome to chat, mingle and drink in a friendly, non-corporate environment.

Saturday 10am – 6pm – Workshops & Discussion

Saturday is aimed at all levels of computer knowledge. The agenda for the day will be set in the morning, based upon who is there and what people want to do. This is a day to embrace the most user friendly side of Free Software. No prior knowledge of tools is assumed and workshops are encouraged to be introductory, accessible and immediately practical to all.

You are welcome to get in touch to make sure the right resources are available if you want to deliver a session. See the contact section below.

Some sessions are pre-planned by the organisers. These include how to:

• Do live & encrypted communications.
• Replace twitter and facebook.
• Set up an anonymous blog.
• Create your own Internet radio station.

If you would like to add another please suggest it to the Hacktionlab mailing list.

Sunday 12pm – 6pm – Workshops, Discussions and Hack sessions

Sunday is aimed to build on any needs and other areas of interest identified on Saturday. There are many projects that have grown out of the HacktionLab network including online radio streaming (catalystradio.org), anonymous blogging (network23.org) & Free Software advocacy and training (techtoolsforactivism.org). We shall also be taking HacktionLab on the road again this year and have some bookings for workshops at festivals; we will discuss how to take this forward.

These are all projects that would welcome your input. Or, maybe you have a project that you would like to get feedback on? In any case, this day is a chance to sit down and discuss existing and potential projects in depth. You will have the option to get cracking on and start collectively working on them. There will be more of an idea of the exact shape of how Sunday will be the end of the Saturday.

MORE ABOUT HACKTIONLAB:

HacktionLab is UK tech-activist run project that aims to create regular convergence spaces where activists interested and/or working in the areas of alternative media, renewable energy, on-line video distribution, free software or any other form of activism that utilises technology can get together and plan how to better harness the technology (or not) to support grass roots social movements. HacktionLab is also working to create a roadshow of outreach workshops and discussion spaces that can be run alone or as part of a larger event.

HacktionLab runs the successful BarnCamp event a rural skills-sharing gathering.

HacktionLab has also helped to nuture and launch several projects, including Network 23, Tech Tools for Activism and Be The Media.

Fitwatch has made life hard for the FIT over the last four years and continues to do it still. But it needs your help. If you are fed up to the back teeth of the police shoving cameras in your face, of being hassled, kettled and even arrested so that police can get your details, come and help us turn the tables on them.

It’s time we stopped the FIT.

http://www.fitwatch.org.uk/

Since it’s inception Black Rose has grown from strength to strength mainly due to the dedication of committed activists and the input of a wide range of incredible people to share skills and build confidence. The sessions have engaged a wide range of men and women, building a large collective around the project and has recently expanded into a kids club as well in the shape of Black Thorn.

Alarm has been proud to support Black Rose Martial Arts Co-Operative and to see it flower so beautifully. Recently Mixed Martial Artist and Anarcho-Communist Jeff Monson agreed to be the patron of Black Rose which was incredible for all those involved. In the next few weeks there will be the first issue of the Black Rose Magazine and also some amazing Black Rose T-Shirts from Sabcat.

But the main event is Black Rose Martial Arts Co-Op hosting Jeff Monson on SUNDAY 25TH MARCH. During the daytime there will be a special training seminar with Jeff at a hired gym for Black Rose regulars. Then in the evening from 5-7pm at LARC (London Action Resource Centre 62 Fieldgate Street Whitechapel E11ES) Jeff Monson will be talking in a public event on politics and fighting. Please come along for this unique event.

If you’re a working woman, odds are you’ve been sexually harassed at some point. Sleazy comments, unwelcome touches, gross behaviour – it happens all the time. Some men think that they can treat you not as a co-worker, but as the objectified woman they think they can sexually benefit from. They use the hierarchy of the workplace and male privilege to do so, because they can get away with it.

We don’t have to put up with it! We should be in control of our own bodies, desires and places of work. We want to provide a safe space for women to come together to discuss their experiences and share practical knowledge. We also need to think about acting in solidarity with people we know who get harassed – how can we better support our friends and co-workers?

This initiative comes out of discussions around a new Solidarity Federation leaflet, Stuff Your Sexist Boss, which aims to inform women of their rights as well as provide ideas and encouragement for how to tackle crappy behaviour at work. Whilst there’s information and online resources relating to street harassment, the workplace seems to be neglected. We hope that the discussions in this workshop will help contribute to the leaflet. The workshop however will not be restricted to feeding ideas for a leaflet and is not intended to be a writing session.

The session’s main aim is about empowering ourselves. If you worry about sharing your experiences, you can always talk without giving names or specific work places. We come together because we have all suffered the same kind of experiences and sharing them will make us stronger.

This is a meeting that is for all who self-identify as women, and is open to trans people as well.

Solidarity Federation is an anarcho-syndicalist revolutionary union initiative. We organise around workplace grievances and in our communities in the understanding that we need to take collective direct action to overthrow all structures of power, whether capitalism, the state, patriarchy or racism. We aim towards a world where values such as solidarity and mutual aid run our lives and our economic, political and social structures are based on need and equality.

Crèche available. Please contact lsfgender@aktivix.orgif you need it, so we know how many hands we need

http://www.solfed.org.uk/

Money raised from this social will be paying for the upkeep of LARC and supporting the brilliant work of the Black Rose Martial Arts Cooperative to pay for new equipment, t-shirts and a very special talk and training session.

The Red and Black Club “a traditional east end knees up for all anarchists, libertarians, radicals and free thinkers.”

AN APPEAL TO ALL RADICALS AND ANTI-AUTHORITARIANS
Why we should all help form radical local community-based groups

Our goal should be the creation of a society free from the exploitation of capitalism and the oppression of the state – a society which is non-hierarchical and in which everyone is free, yet works together collectively. This will be achieved when the mass of the working class share these goals; in other words, we need to help build mass grassroots movements in which radical and anarchist ideas and ways of doing things can flourish in our communities.

Radicals are involved in a wide range of activities. The media tend to stress the more visible and physical roles such as the direct action at demos, arrests etc. But to overcome isolation and not just be a mere pinprick in the side of capitalism and the state, we must also reach out to the mass of the working class.

So what can we do?
The groups that are linked into the Radical London network believe that setting up local radical/anarchist/solidarity groups and networks, with the aim of engaging in local community actions as well as supporting local workplace struggles, is a key way of spreading ideas, solidarity and resistance amongst the wider working class. In addition, we are strengthened by our connection to others and we are in a better situation to actually participate in and win struggles.

For example…

• Campaigns against cuts, to save a local market or a green space, or challenging the impact of the Olympics;
• Supporting community groups and activities such as tenants and residents associations;
• Local industrial disputes and supporting local workers involved in national strikes;
• Practical solidarity work with claimants, people fighting eviction etc;
• Fighting oppression, working with others to challenge racism and other forms of oppression;
• Putting on activities such as film-shows, public meetings or radical history walks;
• Producing leaflets and news-sheets with alternative ways of thinking about current issues & organising.

The groups in Radical London (and around the UK) are doing all of these things. If there were groups throughout London and the UK doing similar things and sharing our experiences and learning from each other, it would be a crucial step in making anarchist & radical ideas influential in a range of grass roots struggles – and a serious alternative to the current establishment / status quo.

www.radicallondon.net

www.londonmexicosolidarity.org