Action Research Ireland

Social movements conference, Maynooth, November 26th

2011-11-15T13:40:00.001-08:00

Social movements have been a central part of Irish life from Emancipation and the Land League via Carnsore Point and the X case protests to trade union and community struggles. In the age of Rossport and Occupy, anti-austerity protests and alternative media, partnership in crisis and global justice conflicts, how can we understand the realities of social movements?

This conference, the first of its kind in 13 years, brings together 21 presenters studying a wide range of movements in Ireland and beyond, showcasing the state of the art of social movement studies - agency and power, the politics of advocacy, women in movement, movements and media, mapping Irish movements, troubles within movements, researching movements and what movements know. Social movement activists and citizens interested in participatory politics, students and researchers alike will all find something to learn from the lively and varied programme for this event.

The conference is free and open to all, with no advance registration needed. It runs from 9.30am to 6.15pm in NUI Maynooth; tea and coffee are provided. For more information see http://tinyurl.com/irishmovements

A Point of Process: Occupy Dame Street Moves into its Third Week

2011-10-24T02:05:00.000-07:00

In Occupy Dame Street practice, we indicate a point of process by making a letter “T” with both hands (like time out in basketball, for instance). We also call it a technical point. It is a very powerful gesture because it allows you to cut into the list of speakers and thus it should be used only if a person wants to make a comment directly to the facilitator. They may remind the facilitator that he or she forgot to ask for clarifying questions at the beginning of the consensus process or they may want to correct any information that they know is misguided. In many of the General Assemblies that we have had in front of the Central Bank in Dublin since October 8th when the occupation began, people have been using the technical point for many things but rarely for what it is meant for. This only testifies to the fact that the process is a learning curve for us all. This text is meant to make a point of process on Occupy Dame Street and, more generally, on the occupy movement worldwide. I will try to do my best not to abuse this right and wish to say that the views expressed here are mine only and are inspired by but do not represent the thousands of beautiful and courageous voices of the people who have come to participate in and support Occupy Dublin.

As Occupy Dame Street (ODS) enters its third week and the encampment is getting ready for the unpleasant wetness of an upcoming Irish winter, it is perhaps a good moment to suggest some time out so that we can think about the opportunities and needs of the process that keeps people involved in this movement and draws many more to it every day in many distant corners of the world.

We have to realise that what we are witnessing is the greatest struggle of our times unfolding before our very own eyes. Across the world, people are standing up in solidarity with one another, bringing their own very local and personal concerns to influence significantly the decisions that they make and actions that they undertake collectively. There should be no doubt that the scale of this movement (spanning across continents and places as remote as Madrid and Sydney, Toronto and Seoul, Sarajevo and Tokyo and a myriad of others) as well as its character is very unique.

Meanwhile, the mainstream media has treated ODS with benevolent scepticism and a good measure of distance. They have described the protesters as well-behaved and asked if they were more than just crusties. Media all over the world seem to be groping their way in the dark (or perhaps they are so dazzled by the new movement that they cannot see?), completely incapable - or unwilling - of grasping or even imagining what the scale and importance of this movement is. The mantra about the lack of clear demands that has been unquestioningly repeated by the mainstream media around the world makes a mockery of both the (supposedly) public and commercial channels. Angered and fed up with the ‘normal state of crisis’, people have finally turned off this breakfast television and took to their local streets and plazas. They have soon found out that they can make their own media. The use that they make of them shows that this movement is not only or even mainly about acting out their anger and frustration. There are trying to find collective and creative ways to live together in the camps and in wider society that would be geared towards the interests and needs of the 100 percent.

The process of arriving at collective decisions is obviously not easy mainly because consensus decision-making is not something that we are all familiar with. It is rather lengthy and more often than not - conflict-ridden. ODS has decided that it is going to use consensus decision-making in the working groups’ meetings as well as the General Assemblies (GAs). Soon it became apparent that we do not really share a common understanding of what consensus entails and many people felt frustrated that things were being discussed but no decisions following those debates were being made. Some were also upset that there would be times when a person or a group of people in a GA almost single-handedly decided if a consensus was reached or not. “So it seems to me that we have a consensus” - became for me a catchphrase of this attitude.

We were learning and we all knew that but we also realised that something had to be done about this quickly; otherwise our goals of a participatory and direct democratic process could be jeopardised by the no doubt good but still too impatient intentions and hasty conclusions of some individuals. We organised two meetings about consensus decision-making, and one of these meetings resulted in a proposal being put forward before the GA about the structure of the consensus decision-making in Occupy Dame Street. We mainly followed the experiences of other Occupy groups and our common sense of what may work in our circumstances. The Facilitation Group (most of whom are wonderful and powerful women) has also done a great job by organising workshops and making volunteers sensitive to the impartial role of the facilitator. The consensus process, however, is still far from perfect. It remains inoperative because as yet it is rarely used in the GAs on Dame Street.

One of the great opportunities that the process of the GAs offers is that everybody’s voice can be listened to and heard and every person have a profound and direct impact on what is decided. However, it is difficult to exercise this right if things are seldom decided during the GAs. More often than not, the assemblies are used as radically open fora which foster collective and equal debate among the participants, but again no decisions are made. This has a number of consequences. The decisions that are agreed upon during any of the working groups’ or in-house meetings do not have a broader legitimacy among anybody who is not staying overnight but can for example contribute a limited number of hours during a weekend. The working groups (media, security, food, arts and culture, facilitation, talks and workshops, construction) are not given the incentive to think beyond the immediate needs of the camp and its inhabitants (which are, by the way, really urgent and numerous). This issue can, however, be addressed by enhancing communication among the working groups, between the working groups and the GAs and between anybody involved in ODS and those who have not yet had a chance to get engaged.

The lack of communication has been discussed at many of the meetings and it seems that the demand for more transparency and better relations has resulted in or at least coincided with a qualitative change in the approach to the entire process. Minutes from all in-house meetings and GAs are now posted on the #OccupyDameStreet website. The immediate question that emerged together with this decision was, naturally, how to write the minutes. It would have been defeating their own purpose if the notes from the meetings were simply transcripts of ‘who said what’. This is why the facilitators concentrated on decisions and proposals. This, in turn, made the facilitators think about the meetings more in terms of decisions and proposals. A question that will now need to be thought through by everybody engaged in the movement is then perhaps how can we make our assemblies places where concrete and practical decisions are made, commitments are undertaken and avoid a tendency to turn GAs into little battlefields centred around various ideological issues? The latter can of course produce really interesting discussions but they do not necessarily take the movement forward. And it is precisely the question of moving our struggle forward that has now become central to us, as was clear after the GA that took place on Saturday, 22. October (just after the second ODS march from the Garden of Remembrance, attended by around 2000 people).

Garnering support for the movement will be a difficult task but we already have a number of proposals on the table: arrange focused GAs, form a separate outreach group, draft an open letter to unions’ memberships, I would add: organise, if we can, student walk-outs and similar displays of solidarity, encourage university faculties and departments to endorse the protest. As soon as (and if) we start doing such things and the assemblies begin making concrete decisions, a whole range of new issues will become relevant. There has been reduced Garda presence around the camp and at the two marches but we know that all it takes to change this all in all supportive attitude is one indiscriminate decision by some official; it would not depend on us and our behaviour. In such case, we would probably need help from people who would like to volunteer for a legal working group so as to make sure that everybody knows their rights and the laws regulating our activities.

And the last point of process is, I guess, having a process in place and making sure that it is used in an open and democratic way. Many of us are still unsure what consensus means: is it unanimity? What if one person disagrees? Does that stop consensus? A good way to overcome this problem is to help people familiarise themselves with the process. No, consensus does not have to mean unanimity. One person disagreeing with the proposal does not have to stop the consensus. Consensus decision-making means a collective reworking of the original proposal so that everybody’s concerns are addressed. A short introduction at the beginning of each GA may be all that is required to clarify these issues as well as the more formal procedure of the consensus process. It would have also helped if it was often stressed and people knew about the living nature of all statements agreed on in ODS. This makes the process open and truly responsive to the needs of people who may be only beginning to join the struggle. While the movement is growing and spreading to other Irish cities: Cork, Galway and Limerick, we have to continue working on its democratic processes so that its momentum is not forfeited by the temptation to concentrate on our immediate camp needs for food and (dry) shelter. We should also stay wary of any attempts to settle in for anything less than real and participatory democracy for the camp, the GA and the wider society in Ireland and abroad.

When you talk to people, listen to their stories about why they have become involved in this movement, a pleasurable feeling of unison emerges - the movement is not about a fixed and predefined group of people with ideals that they want others to follow. ODS and the occupy movement worldwide is about the process of coming together, using our voices to speak for ourselves, our family and our community. Importantly, it is about creating something collectively in a spirit of sharing and in spite of the fact that sometimes the only things that we may be sharing is the struggle itself and the will to win it for ourselves and everybody else. We are not trying to change the world. We are already changing it.

Anna Szołucha

The text has also been published in Irish Left Review.

Social movements conference at Maynooth, November

2011-10-17T15:22:00.000-07:00

A quick plug for the social movements conference at NUI Maynooth on November 26th (Saturday). Free, open to all etc. and bringing together 21 researchers on movements in Ireland and beyond. Full details at this site.

Day conference: new agendas in social movement studies

2011-06-27T05:54:00.000-07:00

We hope this call for papers will produce some good debate!

PAR chapter on Irish birth activism in new book

2011-06-12T14:33:00.000-07:00

Demeter Press have just published an edited collection by Andrea O'Reilly, The 21st century motherhood movement: mothers speak out on why we need to change the world and how to do it. It includes chapters on more than eighty organisations around the world campaigning around issues ranging from birth and maternity care via war and peace to social justice on the basis of shared identities as mothers. There are two Irish chapters: PAR researcher Christina Bermingham on AIMSI, the birth activist Association for Improvements in Maternity Services Ireland, and Martina Hynan on Keeping Mum, a community arts project in Ennis. Available from www.demeterpress.org

Nottingham University suspends "terror arrest" whistleblower

2011-05-04T14:09:00.001-07:00

Dr Rod Thornton was suspended this afternoon by Nottingham University for exposing how the university caused the arrest of two innocent men as suspected terrorists [1]. The new whistle-blowing report [2] from Dr Thornton – ‘How a student’s use of a library book became a “major Islamist plot”’[3] – exposed how senior University management reported the men and undertook a subsequent campaign to discredit them for being in possession of three publicly available documents, all available from the university’s own library [4].

Dr Thornton, a former counter-insurgency advisor to the UK and US militaries, shows how, in the aftermath of the men’s release, the university’s management conducted a behind-the-scenes campaign of disinformation and spin against the arrestees and their university supporters, disregarding university statutes and governmental guidance. All of this in an effort to shift blame and silence those who challenged the university’s account - i.e. that the research material was illegal and the arrests were justified.

What’s more, Dr. Thornton’s article uncovers how Nottingham University's misinformation has seeped into policy circles. The arrest of the 'Nottingham Two' is now advertised as a 'major Islamist plot' by the Home Office [5]. Similarly, another government department calls the library books in question ‘extremist material’ [6]. His revelations arrive immediately after a cross-party parliamentary group published a report criticising universities for being hotbeds of radicalisation. Dr. Thornton’s account, however, exposes how a university’s unaccountable actions aggravate this problem.

A letter written by Vice-Chancellor David Greenaway, was hand-delivered to Dr Thornton and ordered him to vacate his office. The Vice-Chancellor wrote: “the decision has been taken to suspend you until further notice … [because of a] … breakdown in working relationships with your colleagues caused by your recent article prepared for the British International Studies Association Conference” (BISA). Dr Thornton, said: “I am very saddened by the university’s behaviour”.

Rizwaan Sabir, one of the men originally arrested, said: “Yet again, we have more evidence of censorship and silencing of dissent at Nottingham University. I call on the government to launch a full public inquiry into Nottingham University before more people’s lives are ruined”. Students at the university wishing to remain anonymous stated: “We are extremely concerned by Dr. Thornton's suspension. We call for the immediate reinstatement of Dr Thornton and a full investigation into the claims his research is making”.

Contact for comment or interview:

Dr Rod Thornton

Telephone: +44(0)7751959253

Email: rod.thornton@nottingham.ac.uk

Rizwaan Sabir

Telephone: +44(0)7835871096

Email: rizwaan.sabir@strath.ac.uk

Press Enquiries

Telephone: +44(0)7726466211

Email: staffandstudents@gmail.com

NOTE TO EDITORS

[1] The two arrested men were Masters student, Rizwaan Sabir, and staff member, Hicham Yezza. Both were held for a total of six days in May 2008 under Section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000 and released without charge. The Operation was undertaken by West Midlands Counter-Terrorism Unit and Nottinghamshire Police. It was codenamed Operation Minerva.

[2] The title of Dr Thornton’s article was “Radicalisation at universities or radicalisation by universities?: How a student’s use of a library book became a “major Islamist plot”. It was presented at the British International Studies Association (BISA) conference in Manchester on 28 April 2011. The article was removed from the BISA website on 30 April after threats of litigation were made by staff within the University of Nottingham.

[3] Exec. Summary here - http ://www .scribd .com /doc /54454049/EXECUTIVE -SUMMARY -Radicalisation -by -Universities -or -Radicalisation -at -Universities -by -Rod -Thornton

Full article here: http ://www .scribd .com /doc /54150076/Radicalisation -at -Universities -or -Radicalisation -by -Universities -How -a -Students -Use -of -a -Library -Book -Became -a -Major -Islamist -Plot

[4] The three documents that caused their arrests are as follows:

a) P. Gordon, “The end of Bush‟s revolution”, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 85, No. 4 (2006), pp. 75-86 (Foreign Affairs is a US based, world-renowned, political journal).

b) Q. Witorowicz and J. Katner, “Killing in the name of Islam: al Qaeda‟s justification for September 11‟, Middle East Policy Council Journal, 2003, Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 76-92

c) “Al-Qaeda Training Manual”, US Government Exhibit 1677-T (declassified), Federation of American Scientists (http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/aqmanual.pdf). This document is also available in book format from Amazon and from the University of Nottingham’s library, albeit, the document is not being actively advertised on the library catalogue (see footnote 18 of Dr. Thornton’s article). The document is also available from a number of academic and non-academic websites, including the US Department of Justice website (http ://www .justice .gov /ag /manualpart 1_1.pdf), albeit, now in a reduced form. Rohan Gunaratna, one of the world’s foremost experts on the study of al-Qaeda and global terrorism wrote to Rizwaan Sabir and said that the al-Qaeda Training Manual was “required reading” for anyone studying al-Qaeda.For an account of how the document came to the attention of the Registrar and the arrests, please see: http ://www .scribd .com /doc /54451596/Background -to -arrests -of -the -Nottingham -Two -in -Operation -Minerva -at -the -University -of -Nottingham -on -14-May -2008

[5] The document which refers to the arrest of the ‘Nottingham Two’ as a ‘major Islamist plot’ was disseminated by the Home Office in April 2010 via a Freedom of Information request that asked for information on terror plots in the UK from 2006-2008. The report was authored by the Heritage Foundation in Oct 2009 http ://s 3.amazonaws .com /thf _media /2009/pdf /bg 2329.pdf

[6] Undated document released under the Freedom of Information Act from the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) entitled :‘Lines to take [to the media] on recent Nottingham arrests’. See footnote 90 and 313 of Dr. Thornton’s article.

Class, voice and state: PAR thesis on community media now available

2011-04-28T13:20:00.000-07:00

Margaret Gillan's PhD thesis, "Class, voice and state: knowledge production in self-organised working class activity and the politics of developing community television in Ireland using PAR strategies", is now available online here. Margaret is co-ordinator of Community Media Network and one of the key founders of Dublin Community Television. The thesis is a remarkable read.

NUI Maynooth union expresses outrage and supports call for international inquiry

2011-04-08T03:51:00.001-07:00

April 8th, 2011

As members of the academic community in the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, we wish to express our outrage at the comments made by police in Mayo towards Maynooth student Jerrieann Sullivan and another protester who wishes to remain anonymous. Many Maynooth students have taken part in protests at Rossport and elsewhere over the years, and all have a right to do so without fear of intimidation, assault or sexual violence. We add our voice to the call for an independent international inquiry into the policing of protests around the Corrib Gas project.

Dr Colmán Etchingham, Chairperson
Dr Colin Coulter, Vice Chairperson
Maynooth Branch of the Irish Federation of University Teachers

Beyond the crisis: global justice, equality, social movements

2011-04-01T05:44:00.000-07:00

The Maynooth MAs in Community Education, Equality & Social Activism and in Anthropology & Development are hosting this day workshop in Seomra Spraoi on May 7th (admittance free). The general idea is that the last couple of years of crisis have left us reacting to one thing after another and finding it hard to keep our heads above water while not just "the situation out there" but the situation of our own movements has changed dramatically: so the workshop is deliberately about less obviously immediate and urgent ways of looking at things, more strategic and "bigger questions".

The presenters and facilitators are a mix of activist academics and academic activists, all well-known in their fields but we don't often get to hear most of them talking in Dublin around these topics: John Holloway, Eurig Scandrett, Kathy Powell, Laurence Davis, Rosie Meade, David Nugent and Aileen O'Carroll. A splendid time is guaranteed for all...

Writing Ireland's working class

2011-03-28T14:51:00.000-07:00

An interesting-looking new book:

Michael Pierse, "Writing Ireland's working class: Dublin after O'Casey" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).

As a social other, Ireland's urban working class inhabits a 'non-place' in the national narrative, a place beset by galling levels of poverty and low social mobility. Its exclusion is not just social and economic, but cultural as well. Working-class Dublin in particular elicits little good press, and less in terms of academic commentary or cultural appreciation, so where and how does it appear in literature? Exploring the fiction and plays of this marginalised community after Sean O'Casey, this book breaks new ground in Irish Studies scholarship, charting alternative directions for academic research and unearthing submerged narratives in the history of Irish culture. Most of the works examined have received little or no critical commentary to date, yet this book makes a compelling case for their centrality to the history and appreciation of Irish literature. From O'Casey to Roddy Doyle, a rich tapestry of urban life is illuminated and explored, which presents a robust challenge to stereotyped and staid views of Irish life and literature.

Chapters

The shadow of Sean
Angry Young Men - Class Injuries and Masculinity
From Rocking the Cradle to Rocking the System - Writing Working-Class Women
Industry and the City - Workers in Struggle
Prison Stories - Writing Dublin at its Limits
Return of the Oppressed - Sexual Repression, Culture and Class
Revising the Revolution: Roddy Doyle's A Star Called Henry, Historiography, Politics and Proletarian Consciousness

"Ireland's new religious movements" launch

2011-03-22T03:48:00.000-07:00

"Ireland's new religious movements", discussed here, will be launched in Dublin on Wednesday, March 30th by Marion Bowman, head of dept. of Religious Studies at the Open University. Dr Bowman will give a talk on "Contemporary Celticity". The event is in the Gutter Bookshop, Cow's Lane, Temple Bar, Dublin 8 at 6.30 and admission is free. A poster for the event is here.

Centre for the Study of Working-Class Lives, Strathclyde

2011-02-16T15:14:00.001-08:00

The University of Strathclyde now has a Centre for the Study of Working-Class Lives, with a very impressive team of Colm Breathnach, Neil Davidson and Patricia McCafferty. Something like this is badly needed in "these islands" as witness the Irish interest in the Youngstown Center for Working-Class Studies.

They're launching it on Friday March 11th. The programme's as follows:

09.00–09.45 Registration and Coffee

09.45-09.50 Welcome

Professor Jim McDonald (University of Strathclyde)

09.50-10.00 Introduction

Neil Davidson (University of Strathclyde)

10.00-11.15 Session 1: Why a Centre for the Study of Working Class Lives?

Professor Michael Zweig (Stony Brook University)

11.15–11.30 Refreshment Break

11.30–12.45 Session 2: Class, Work and Deindustrialisation

Dr Tim Strangleman (University of Kent)

12.45–13.45 Buffet Lunch

13.45–15.00 Session 3: The Power of Class: Inequalities, Injuries and Actions in the History of Advanced Capitalism

Professor Michael J. Haynes (University of Wolverhampton)

15.00–16.15 Session 4: Panel Discussion

Geographies of Social Class in 21^st Century Britain

Professor Danny Dorling (University of Sheffield)

Where is the Working Class? Class Agency and Resistance in British Cities

Dr Andrew Cumbers (University of Glasgow)

16.15–16.30 Refreshment Break

16.30–17.45 Session 5: Representations of the Working Class in Contemporary Art and Culture

Gail Day (University of Leeds) and Steve Edwards (The Open University)

17.45-18.00 Reflections on the Conference

Professor Michael Zweig (Stony Brook University)

18.00–19.00 Wine Reception/Informal discussion

Registration is £40 to academics, free to students and non-academics. Email claire.mcconnell AT strath.ac.uk to book.

Religious movements, new and old

2011-02-02T13:39:00.000-08:00

Ireland's new religious movements, the first academic overview of the range of new religion in Ireland, has just been published. As opposed to the received wisdom that everyone in Ireland has been born either Catholic or Protestant for centuries, the book shows among other things the growing significance of the rejection of religion (and "lukewarm religion"), the long history of alternative religions in Ireland, the importance of feminism and woman-centre religious movements, the complexities of migrant religion and Ireland's role as a global "Celtic" homeland.
Co-edited by Olivia Cosgrove, Laurence Cox, Carmen Kuhling and Peter Mulholland. Available from Cambridge Scholars at £50 sterling, which is pretty steep but libraries can buy in copies if asked. Full details here.

While the rest of Ireland was competing in building denominational churches (and collaborating in converting the "heathen" under the auspices of the British empire...), a number of Irish people travelled to Asia and joined anti-colonial movements both religious and political. One of the most interesting of these was a Dublin-born ex-hobo turned Buddhist monk (and scourge of Christian missionaries), U Dhammaloka (?1856 - ?1914). UCC is celebrating the centenary of his trial for sedition; full details and a ten-minute video are online here. This is also the Irish launch of a special issue of Contemporary Buddhism on the subject.

For a new Europe: university struggles against austerity

2011-01-14T15:55:00.000-08:00

See here for details of a meeting in Paris next month for people involved in university struggles across Europe.

Interface 2/2: movements making media

2010-12-01T13:51:00.000-08:00

Interface: a journal for and about social movements has just published issue 2/2, on the theme "Voices of dissent: activists' engagements in the creation of alternative, autonomous, radical and independent media". It can be found here and in a few days will migrate to this address.

Social movements under another name

2010-11-11T14:04:00.000-08:00

More details here about new research on a working-class Dubliner who hoboed his way across America and became a key figure in the Asian Buddhist revival that heralded the birth of anti-colonial nationalism in a string of countries. A very different way of thinking about social movements.

Conference presentations

2010-07-13T03:42:00.000-07:00

Some of the conference presentations are now available online in a "raw and unedited" form, as follows:

Laurence Cox: Why do movements want to know things, and how do they go about it? (DOC)

Benoit Dutilleul: Deploying actor-network theory to conceptualise movements' dynamics (DOC)

Thomas Kador: Archaeology as action research (PDF)

Aisling Murtagh: Breaking cycles of movement dilution: the case of food (PDF)

Heather Watkins: contribution to "What role for subjectivities and 'politica afectiva' in the theory and practice of social justice?" (DOC)
You will need to "click through" the first screen that comes up.

Learning from each other's struggles: rates, food, childcare

2010-06-17T00:41:00.000-07:00

For personal reasons a speaker has withdrawn, making it possible to offer lower rates. These are now €20 or €10 per day for unwaged, €30 and €15 for waged. These costs include food, childcare and administrative expenses.

If you need childcare, please email as soon as possible. There is limited availability for these places.

"Learning from each other's struggles" provisional programme

2010-06-11T14:10:00.000-07:00

Learning from each other's struggles:

Social movements / activist / militant research workshop

Dublin / Maynooth, June 18th - 20th

Social movements like community development, anti-capitalism, the women's movement, union organising, majority world solidarity, GLBT activism, anarchism and socialism, community education and community arts, migrant rights and anti-racism all produce knowledge for change.

Sometimes this knowledge is a radical understanding of how the status quo works and how it can be changed; sometimes it is expert knowledge of a particular issue that can be used in media and legal battles; sometimes it is research on movements themselves that can be used to get better at what we do; sometimes it is popular education work and radical teaching.

This weekend workshop is for people researching social movements, activist researchers, adult and community educators and movement organisers thinking about the next step in a period of crisis. It is not a place for delivering conventional academic papers, but rather a workshop space for sharing skills, learning from each other's struggles and developing our practice. The workshop is a joint initiative of the participatory action research programme in social movements at NUIM Sociology and the Political Ethnography group at the Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice, Nottingham.

With apologies for the delay, here is a provisional programme for this event. Further details and updates will be posted here; you can find travel details etc. on the right-hand toolbar. You can book online or register on the day.

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Friday 18th
Seomra Spraoi, Belvedere Court, off Gardiner Street, Dublin 1
(Map on http://www.seomraspraoi.org:8080/Plone/copy_of_contact-us)

7.30 - 10.00: Introduction to weekend and activist film night hosted by Barra Hamilton.

Provisional showings:
- One less car (2010, 15 mins)
- Mandate: waking up, taking action (2010, 5 mins)
- Torture is us (2008, 15 mins)
- Beyond the classroom: the communities - Tallaght (2010, 10 mins)
- 8 things to remember (2009, 12 mins)
- War on the poor: budget day in Ireland (2009, 5 mins)
- Choice Ireland protest at WRC (2009, 2 mins)
- Hundreds march to legalise cannabis (2010, 3 mins)
- Wallets full of blood: zombie banker blues (2009, 20 mins)
- Looking left: banshee (2010, 30 mins)
- Ifyoulikeitthenyoushouldbeabletoputaringonit (2010, 15 mins)
- End the siege of Gaza (2010, 16 mins)
- MUTO: a wall-painted animation (7 mins)
- COMBO: animated murals (8 mins)
- David Camerwrong: new vision for Britain (2010, 3 mins)

More details in a separate post.

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Saturday 19th (morning and afternoon)
Auxilia Building, north campus, National University of Ireland Maynooth
(Travel details and maps at http://www.nuim.ie/location/):

9.30 - 10.00: Registration

10.00 - 11.00: Energy, power and politics:

Amanda Slevin (Donegal MAOR / UCD Sociology), Hegemony and hydrocarbons

Hilary Darcy (Seomra Spraoi Better Questions / NUIM Sociology), Consent to coercion: policing protest in the Republic of Ireland

OR

Theorising social movements:

Benoit Dutilleul (University of the West of England), Deploying actor-network theory to conceptualise movements' dynamics

Aisling Murtagh (UCC), Breaking cycles of movement dilution: the case of food

11.00 11.30: Break

11.30 1.00: Workplace organising as militant / action research

Ziggy (Kolinko collective), Organising call-centre workers as militant research

1.00 - 2.00: Lunch

2.00 - 3.30: Social movements and strategy: law as battleground

Jenny Boylan (NUI Galway), Grassroots activism and the development of abortion law in the Republic of Ireland

Deborah Magill (Transitional Justice Institute, University of Ulster), Social movements' use of litigation

OR

Art and archaeology as action research

Thomas Kador (UCD Archaeology), Archaeology as action research

Martina Carroll (ARCAMosaic / UCD Psychology), Community art, action research and anti-racism

3.30 - 4.00: Break

4.00 - 6.00: Practicing political ethnography

Nottingham Political Ethnography Group, What role for subjectivities and "politica afectiva" in the theory and practice of social justice?
(Deirdre Duffy, Jennifer Martinez, Jon Mansell, Sara Motta, Maria Urbina, Heather Watkins)

Saturday night
Seomra Spraoi, Dublin

7.30 - 10.00: Activist film night

Provisional showing:

A place in the city (Abahlali baseMjondolo poor people's movement in South Africa)

Exodus: movement of Jah people (radical squatting / youth movement in Luton)

Porto Marghera: the last firebrands (Italian autonomism)

More details in a separate post.

Sunday 20th (morning and afternoon)

Auxilia Building, north campus, National University of Ireland Maynooth

10.30 - 12.30: Social movements making media

Mimi Doran (UCD Social Justice), Media literacy and social activism: using mainstream and new media as a site for social movements

Yuvi Basanth (RootsReelFilms), Activist documentary making

Barra Hamilton (Dublin Community TV), Activists and the media

12.30 - 1.30: Lunch

1.30 - 3.00: Who owns social movements?

David Landy (Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Committee / TCD Sociology), Solidarity, splits and panic stations: reflections on an interesting year for the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Committee

Francisco Arqueros (NUIM Anthropology), The politics of migrant worker organising

- OR –

Personal, political, praxis: participatory action research and movements

Jean Bridgeman (Women of Insight / NUIM Sociology), Notes from a journal: methods and strengths in action research

Asia Rutkowska (NUIM Sociology), Ethics and politics in participatory action research

3.00 - 3.15: Break

3.15 - 5.00: Social movements and knowledge: who owns the intellectual means of production?

Andre Pusey and Elsa Noterman (Really Open University / Leeds Geography / Activism and Social Change MA), Developing the Really Open University: problems and experiences

Laurence Cox (NUIM Sociology), Why do movements want to know things, and how do they go about it?

Descriptions of presentations and events

2010-06-11T13:30:00.000-07:00

An incomplete list of descriptions of presentations and events:

Francisco Arqueros (The politics of migrant worker organising):

My presentation is about my work in a migrant workers group that was supposed to be migrant led. In practice it was far from it, and I would like to show why it was the case. I was an active member in the group.

My presentation is based on the last chapter of my PhD dissertation in the Department of Anthropology at NUIM.

Jean Bridgeman (Notes from a journal: methods and strengths in action research)

This workshop explores some methods and strengths in keeping a reflexive journal in the process of doing action research. It draws from my own experiences in the field of research and brings attention to the inner strengths to be found in the role as researcher. Some issues discussed will be:

- self doubt in research practice

- isolation in forms of community organising and

- finding inner strengths: why it's ok when things fall apart

The workshop will give a brief overhead presentation and then engage participants in interactive discussion on key issues presented.

Martina Carroll (Community art, action research and anti-racism)

As a working class Irish woman, who had returned to education as a mature student, I became involved in teaching adult and community education. I pursued a PhD entitled "Working Through the Arts in Antiracism education", currently in the final stages before submission. I created an antiracism community arts project called ARCAMosaic which became a context for a collaborative action research project. My research interests are in lived experience and meaning making processes especially the use of art in meaning making. I collaborated with local people in the area where I live in Dublin 12 as we explored the issues of racism, culture and identity through a combination of image and dialogue within the community arts project. For my presentation I would like to talk about the mixed method approach I used that combined Action Research with Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis and Art. I would also like to talk about the emancipatory aims of the project and the research, and to show how art was used to make sense of many confusing and often contradictory experiences.

Laurence Cox (Why do movements want to know things, and how do they go about it?)

A lot of what thinks of itself as radical theory, writing, teaching, journalism, research etc. doesn't think about its own "conditions of existence" in the same way that it thinks about other kinds of thought, knowledge and culture. The relatively small number of self-aware modes of movement thought tend to be limited to their own movement, or to particular organising traditions. The net result is that not only do we know relatively little about ourselves and our work, but we also unconsciously reproduce many ways of producing knowledge which are inherited, either from our own (often not very successful) past, or from our socialisation into mainstream skills and forms of knowledge.

This workshop / part-workshop session starts from what participants know about the different movements they're involved in e.g. environmental, community, women's, LGBTQ, socialist, anarchist, trade union, popular education, anti-war, etc. etc. and the different kinds of knowledge those movements produce: political theory and strategy, information about "issues", activist tactics, alternative technology, organising tools, ways of being with each other, educational and consciousness-raising practice, "how-to" information, movement history, research on social structure, etc. etc.

We will try to find out together what these different kinds of knowledge are for, how they are produced now, and what the history of these different kinds of "Really Useful Knowledge" (as they were called in the late 19th century) is. In particular, we want to see how they are given shape and structure, transmitted to other activists and newer generations, how they become stale and rhetorical or how they remain connected to practice. One particular interest is in the way some of these kinds of movement knowledge have either forced their way into academia (and other mainstream institutions) or been coopted and commodified by such institutions, and what the political implications of this are.

Mimi Doran (Media literacy and social activism: using mainstream and new media as a site for social movements)

This talk will look closely at the Participatory Research Action case study of St Michaels Estate, Regeneration Team, Dublin, Ireland. It tells the story of a working class communitys journey to become media literate with the aim of getting the communities perspective on regeneration heard in the public domain. It documents their attempt to use the media as a communications tool to get their voice heard and their story of being regenerated on listened to. It charts their journey from being a relatively unknown community group to becoming recognised nationally as expert sources of information on regeneration.

The talk outlines the media literacy programme the group followed and highlights the impact media coverage had on how the regeneration story of St Michaels unfolds. St Michaels Estate been involved in the regeneration of their housing estate for 10 years. The PPP Regeneration project collapsed in May 2008 (along with many more) and residents have been left living in the most appalling conditions with little hope for the future. However this community has a long history of grass roots activism and have mobilised to get their community socially and physically regenerated. They are using mainstream and new media to tell their story, raise public awareness, instigate debate, influence policy and legislation.

The ideas discussed in this presentation outline the impact media literacy (skills and knowledge of how to work with media) is having on how the regeneration story of St Michaels Estate, unfolds. This work originates from my background as a media practitioner and work with postgraduate students in the Equality Studies Centre UCD (students are also activists for equality issues in Ireland and internationally) who wanted to be develop greater levels of media literacy and empowerment. They described a sense of mystification about how the media operate and were highly sceptical about its possible contribution to greater equality in society in the light of the ever-expanding global reach of commercial media. In response, we developed the Equality and the Media module in consultation with students. The module attempts to develop critical thinking about media literacy, alongside practical workshops about how to access and perform on different media platforms.

From this I developed a media literacy programme for social activists with the aim of getting their voice heard in the public domain. There is growing evidence that media is easier to access, audiences easier to get information to and the cost of accessing the media has decreased dramatically. Citizen journalism is on the increase and the distribution of information, ideas and opinions through blogging, podcasts, videos and social networking sites has never been easier. For activists, this opens up important spaces to create media content and communicate with a wider audience. With knowledge, know how and technology anyone can become a citizen journalist and this has huge impact on power relations within the media. The successful use of new media by the Zapatista movement in Mexico showcases how grass roots activism can reach a global audience (Castells 1997). Successful campaigns such as the Battle for Seattle against the World Trade Organisation and the anti-war against Iraq protests have shown how activists can mobilise successfully by fostering new media (Kahn and Douglas 2004). Media as a site for social action is where minorities and rights based groups can congregate and mobilize in a non hierarchal environment. The shift in power relations of new media is where emancipatory potential lies creating possibilities for revitalizing the public sphere.

Benoit Dutilleul (Using actor-network theory to conceptualise movements' dynamics)

Following an initial presentation of actor network theorys (ant) metaphysics, theoretical commitments, concepts and methodological doctrine, the paper then deploys ant to conceptualise social movements dynamics and growth. Social movements are thought as phenomena coalescing within relational emergence, constructed and performed by humans and non-humans altogether. Social movements dynamics are rendered as struggles between actor networks and three possible processes whereby their performances may grow and bring about change are identified: organizational development, growth in participation, and transformation and/or erosion of adversary actor networks. The third part of the paper analyses a performance of clown-activists to stress that, and to show how, individually and collectively, humans compose the performance with non-humans. It then reveals how heterogeneous relational patterns linking clowns with other actors organize the performance and how the action might have produced change and movement growth. As a whole, ant might provide the theoretical space and the conceptual tools for addressing some theoretical limitations in existing social movement scholarship. Through a shift in focus from theories to performances, ant research might help ordering, articulating and enriching existing theories, while producing knowledge that might also be more relevant and accessible to activists.

Barra Hamilton (Activists and the media)

Manipulation techniques applied by the media and ways to avoid falling into to "mass media trap" when being interviewed and how to subvert the mass media (propaganda model), from advertisements to the news.

Look at creating a sustainable activist / community media sector, benefits to activists. Analysis of successfully Irish media campaigns/ tricks launched by under resources activists.

Thomas Kador (Archaeology as action research)

The public perception of archaeology is that it is a discipline that investigates the past. The logical corollary of this view is that the subject matter of archaeology is dead and gone and bears little significance to socioeconomic and political relations in the present.

I disagree strongly with both of these notions. Although, most archaeological research indeed centres on investigating the lives of people in the past, the research itself is of course always carried out within a contemporary social, political and cultural context. Consequently archaeological interpretations can tell us at least as much, if not more, about contemporary society than about communities of the past.

That archaeology can be used and even abused as a powerful political tool has been widely acknowledged and there are many examples of this, ranging from the early colonial exploits of British (and other) explorers, the use of archaeology in NAZI Germany (as famously portrayed in Indiana Jones) and Communist Eastern Europe to Zionist archaeology in the Middle East and the archaeology of land rights in the Americas and Australasia.

If archaeology has this power to legitimise political causes then on the flipside it must also have the potential to subvert existing power relations and consequently act as tool for social change.

In this paper I wish to make the case for, and outline the principles of an action archaeology. That is an archaeology that does not pretend to be a neutral bystander reporting on past events, but an archaeology that acknowledges its power for social transformation and actively pursues its aims to contribute towards social change in contemporary society.

David Landy (Solidarity, splits and panic stations: reflections on an interesting year for the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Committee)

One day after the IPSC AGM, it seems like a good idea to reflect on the past year of solidarity activism. As a central activist in the IPSC, I have a particular interest in discussing what the group has been through in the past year a year which has involved dealing with the aftermath of Gaza, coping with the previous leadership group splintering off and forming a micro-group in conjunction with the Palestinian Delegation, refocusing our campaign around Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions, and the ongoing rhythm of crises and panics that every Palestinian solidarity movement in Europe works with.

The purpose of the workshop is not social movement journalism (or gossip) however. I want to make the experiences of the IPSC relevant to others and intend to reflect on the IPSC based around the following questions:

1. Groups face the ongoing dynamic of co-option and making nice to power on the one hand; the necessity of professionalization and reaching out to the mainstream on the other. How do we, and how do we fail to bridge this gap?

2. Movements try to whip up peoples enthusiasms, and to get political parties interested and involved in their campaigns. How do we do so, yet maintain our independence from political parties and from internal factions trying to capture the group for their own enthusiasms and interests?

3. The problematics all distant issue movements (including Irish-led migrants rights groups, solidarity groups etc) face. Who do we represent?

4. Social movement activism is frequently one damn crisis after another. These immediate issues are what matters to movement participants. Does social movement theory offer anything besides platitudes to help activists deal with these crises that drive movements?
While I might not get to all these questions, I've a particular interest in questions 1 and 4.

Deborah Magill (Social movements' use of litigation)

I am a researcher at the Transitional Justice Institute/School of Law at the University of Ulster. My current research examines social movements use of litigation as a strategy. I would be very interested in giving a presentation at the above weekend workshop. My presentation will firstly look at how different social movements view the law and how this determines where litigation fits within their overall strategy. It will then examine the postitive and negative impact litigation can have on a campaign. Finally I will consider how movements have responded to case outcomes and in particular how negative rulings have been utilised to boost a campaign.

Nottingham Political Ethnography Group (What role for subjectivities and "politica afectiva" in the theory and practice of social justice?

The Nottingham Political Ethnography Group began in November 2008 as a collective space for PhD students working with Sara Motta to discuss the research process in its intellectual, political, subjective, and effective elements.

We have since refined the focus of our work and found that giving ourselves a name helps to distinguish this focus. Collectively, our research questions ask who are the agents of politics and social change? What are the mechanisms and forms of domination and their contradictions? How can researchers study forms of resistance as a way of contributing to social justice and political transformation? As such, we are concerned with:

i) The relevance of our research, not merely for policy but for the opening up of public space for dissent and the discussion of alternatives; and

ii) The relevance of our research to the communities with whom we are working.

We believe this requires us to overcome some of the problematic divisions between public/private, academic/political, fact/value, and empirical/theoretical that are over-emphasized in the university space. In addition to debating the theoretical implications of these divisions, we also discuss using methodologies that place these questions at the centre of our research. In particular, what it means to practice 'political ethnography' as a way to rupture traditionally assumed dichotomies and grounding critical theories in the present-day practices of various communities in Europe and Latin America. In part these interests stem from our previous and on-going experiences in non-governmental organizations, political parties, and social movements. Ultimately, we hope to make a contribution to a wider audience through a collective research project in the future.

Our workshop will focus on the role of subjectivities and politica efectiva (the politics of effect) in our research and practices both in and outside of the university. This is a theme that has become of increasing interest to the group, particularly as traditional conceptions of knowledge production and social emancipation seem to either ignore or make secondary these elements of social transformation.

Each of us will approach the topic of the workshop from a slightly different perspective. These include the politics of effect in the construction of academic-activist subjectivity; the construction of new subjects of social transformation in Venezuela, the attempt to hegemonise commodified subjectivities in local government initiatives and the tensions between good sense and common sense in subaltern subjectivities and political cultures.

We hope that the questions raised from our reflections about these elements of subjectivity and politica efectiva in our work and lives will stimulate a collective space of discussion and the development of what De Sousa Santos calls an ecology of knowledges; a space of openness and dialogue in which we can explore the relevance of the subject and political afectiva in our work as critical educators and researchers.

Andre Pusey and Elsa Noterman (Developing the Really Open University: problems and experiences)

Andre Pusey is a PhD candidate in the Geography department at the University of Leeds. His research is around ways in which activists (re)produce the common(s) and I am experimenting with militant ethnography and other forms of participatory method. He has a long involvement in social movements, such as Earth First! and the anti-roads movement of the 1990s and more recently groups such as Climate Camp.

Elsa is currently enrolled on the 'Activism and Social Change' Masters program, also here in the Geography department at Leeds. She intends to pursue PhD research in the near future and has a strong interest in participatory action research.

We are both involved with a group called the 'Really Open University'. The ROU was established in part to resist the massive financial cuts the University of Leeds is facing, through supporting lecturers strike action, building awareness in the student body and countering Leeds Student Union's anti-strike and scaremongering campaign. However, the larger and more important emphasis of the ROU has been critiquing the neoliberal university and the further enclosure and commodification of knowledge, whilst arguing for the use of radical pedagogical methods and establishment of 'knowledge commons'.

We are interested in presenting something on our involvement with the ROU as activist-researchers and reflect on some of the problems and obstacles we feel the group has faced, especially when moving from the 'visualisation' to 'actualisation' stage of the groups goals.

We look forward to engaging participants in a discussion about the enclosure of knowledge, as well as explore examples of resistance and the creation of alternatives. We see this as an opportunity to extend the sorts of discussions we have been having as well as gaining valuable feedback.

The groups websites are www.reallyopenunion.org/ and www.reallyopenuniversity.org/

Amanda Slevin (Hegemony and hydrocarbons)

This presentation will provide an insight into my research on the Irish states management of its gas and oil. Beginning with an overview of the Shell to Sea campaign, I will highlight some of the main issues raised by this social movement and outline its influences on my research as an activist. I will then focus on my research topic, problematising the states management of Irish gas and oil and interrelated processes of consent formation and coercion.

Films

(Friday)

One Less Car

Producer – Dublin Community Television (2010)

Issues affecting Cyclists in City Centre (Dublin)

Duration: 15 mins

http://vimeo.com/10922778

Mandate - Waking Up, Taking Action

Producer – Dublin Community Television (2010)

Workers rights

Duration: 5 mins

http://vimeo.com/11228178

Torture is us

Producer - Scooter Twomey (2008)

This film covers the adventures of our intrepid Guerrilla film maker, Scooter as he turns himself into a entrepreneurial master of war.

Duration: 15 mins

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7Z9huOJ9xw&feature=player_embedded

Beyond the Classroom - The Communities -Ep2: Tallaght

Producer – Dublin Community Television (2010)

Recently DCTV has been privileged to be involved with "The Meeting Room" a powerful, feature length telling of the drugs activists around Dublin as they gathered in their meeting rooms in the early 1980's.

This is in some ways the story of what those activists did next - how a group in Tallaght, West Dublin turned to community education to support the development of a community focussed and run, long term solution to Drugs.

Following on from the first episode in Kilbarrack, Donnacha O'Briain's inspiring and eloquently told piece shows not just community education but the communities of Dublin at their best.

Duration 20mins

http://vimeo.com/10218232

8 Things to Remember

Producer – Aoibheann O’Sullivan (2009)

What are the 8 Things to Remember if you are a Shannonwatch planespotter?

Duration: 12 mins
http://vimeo.com/5013933

War on the Poor: Budget Day in Ireland 2009

Producer: Paula Geraghty (2009)

Hundreds took part in rolling protests through the day and many braved the awful weather conditions after work where many gathered to voice their anger after the Budget was announced.

Duration: 5mins

http://vimeo.com/8250061

Choice Ireland protest at WRC rogue crisis pregnancy clinic.

Producer: Paula Geraghty (2009)

Choice Ireland has been campaigning for three years against unregulated Rogue Crisis Pregnancy Agencies who give false and dangerous information to pregnant women in order to prevent them from having abortions.

Duration: 2mins
http://vimeo.com/8149140

Hundreds March to Legalise Cannabis, Dublin 8th May 2010

Producer: Paula Geraghty (2010)

Hundreds of people lit up the odd spliff and some under the watchful gaze of the Gardaí as they marched from Parnell Square to the Daíl and all the back again to Parnell Square.

Duration: 3mins

http://vimeo.com/11605109

Wallets Full of Blood: Zombie Banker Blues

Producer: Eamonn Crudden (2009)

Scientists, troops and auditors arrive from abroad to investigate the total collapse of a small Republic. They're looking for 'Fingers'. His actions had hastened the spiral of the country into a bottomless liquidity trap. They want to interrogate him.

Duration: 20mins

http://vimeo.com/4292136

Looking Left :Banshee

Producer: Dublin Community Television (2010)

Studio discussion about Banshee : Journal of Irish Women United

Duration: 30mins

IfYouLikeItThenYouShouldBeAbleToPutARingOnIt

Producer: Cara Holmes/Ciara Kennedy (2010)

A short documentary about the Civil Marriage campaign in Ireland today.

Duration: 15 mins

http://vimeo.com/11862207

End The Siege On Gaza - Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Producer:Liam Noonan (2010)

On Saturday the 5th June 2010 the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign called a demonstration on the day that the Rachel Corrie aid ship was due to arrive in the Gaza Strip. It was hijacked by Israeli Armed Forces just days after a similar hijacking resulted in 9 activists being brutally murdered in international waters.

Duraion: 16mins

http://vimeo.com/12340737

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU

Producer: Blu
an ambiguous animation painted on public walls.
Made in Buenos Aires and in Baden (fantoche)

Duration 7 mins

http://vimeo.com/993998

COMBO

Producer: Blu and David Ellis

Stop motion animated murals

Duration 8 mins

David Camerwrong presents a new Vision for Britain

Producer : David Camerwrong

Comedy mash up of Dave’s “new vision” for Britain.

Duration 3 mins

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHR6-KN-8uI

(Saturday)

A place in the city (South Africa, 2008)

Nearly 15 years since apartheid ended, millions of black South Africans still live in self-built shacks without sanitation, adequate water supplies, or electricity.

But A Place in the City will overturn all your assumptions about slums and the people who live in them.

In this film, shot in the vast shack settlements in and around Durban, members of Abahlali baseMjondolo, the grassroots shackdwellers movement, lay out their case against forcible eviction; for decent services with passion, eloquence, and sweet reason. The film captures the horrible conditions in which shackdwellers live but it also captures Abahlalis bravery and resilience, in a political climate where grassroots campaigners like them are more likely to be met with rubber bullets than with offers to talk.

For the first time now, says S'bu Zikode, Abahlali's elected leader, poor people have started to speak for themselves. Now, that challenges those who are paid to think for us who are paid to speak for us.

At the heart of Abahlalis struggle is the struggle for meaningful citizenship rights for South Africas poor majority. Or does freedom in South Africa, asks Abahlali volunteer organiser Louisa Motha, only belong to the rich?

Exodus: movement of Jah people (Britain, 1996)

Exodus is a unique urban phenomenon which does not simply confront but intelligently challenges society's assumptions and values. They offer working, viable solutions to many of society's stated ills, poverty, crime, drugs, unemployment and the break down of community. Exodus blend a volatile mixture of rastafarianism, new-age punk and street smart politics. 'We are not drop outs but force outs.'

"This remarkable film is an antidote to the dereliction and paranoia on Britain's streets. Squatting and renovating decayed buildings, Exodus pursue a mutually agreed quest to regenerate their disaffected community. Their regular free raves bring ex-army, ex-estate agents, ex-shop assistants and ex-criminals together as Exodus, a dance with new direction. For anyone interested in a street-relevant discussion on drugs, criminality, spirituality and community, this film is a must-see". Squall

Porto Marghera: the last firebrands (Italy, 2004)

A film about petrochemical workers who took matters into their own hands in the giant industrial zone engulfing Venice. The mass refusal of literally toxic work forced hours on the job down at the same time as driving wages up. The labour hierarchy that sets white collar against blue, permanent against casual, was attacked by workers insisting on the maximum for everyone. The battle in the factory was linked to working-class life outside through direct appropriation of basic social needs (electricity, housing, food).

More clearly than any before them, the Porto Marghera workers identified the factory as the trigger of fatal diseases and destroyer of life. They remained on the offensive against the concerted hostility of unions, multinational employers and state from the late 1960s until well into the '70s. As part of an international wave of struggle, their actions contributed to a global accumulation crisis, provoking the capitalist counter-attack which has never ceased since then.

Unlike most more or less academic accounts of Italian Operaismo, which tend to focus on high-profile groups and individual leaders, Porto Marghera gli ultimi fuochi (Manuela Pellarin, Italy, 2004) documents autonomous worker organization from the point of view of the worker-activists themselves, who talk about their experiences in the film. Many aspects and problems of this phase of class struggle are of immediate relevance today.

The Porto Marghera workers fought for better conditions within their work and at the same time against the damaging impact the chemical industry and of work itself. They defended their health-damaging jobs, yet did so from a deeply critical perspective, at a time when a middle-class moralizing green movement did not exist.

They developed independent organizational forms within the existing struggles of the time. This meant reassessing the relationships between the workers' mobilizations and their own role as active workers;the factory and the wider social terrain; workers' struggles, new forms of union representation and 'professional' political groups like Potere Operaio; and between mass movement, armed insurrectionist groups and state repression.

Life after partnership

2010-05-19T02:59:00.001-07:00

As it becomes clear not only that "partnership" is being abolished from above across what the state sees as different "sectors" - unions, community organising, women's groups, LGBTQ activism, disability rights, environmentalism, development / solidarity work etc. etc. but also that we are heading into an assault on social movements the like of which we have not seen in some time, plans are starting to be formulated for an activist summer school asking who "we" are, what the situation is, and what we can do about it.

If anyone wants to know more, please email me at laurence.cox AT nuim.ie. Some background in this talk to the Egalitarian World Initiative / UCD Social Justice conference "Equality in a time of crisis", entitled "Another world is under construction? Social movement responses to inequality and crisis" and hosted by the kind people at Irish Left Review.

Spalpeens, Gombeens, Squireens: Class Relations in Nineteenth Century Ireland

2010-05-11T01:44:00.000-07:00

A one day interdisciplinary conference aiming to bring together researchers whose work offers an insight into the lives of ordinary people in nineteenth century Ireland. The particular focus is on class as those lives were bound up with production, domination, exploitation and conflict.

Given the relatively sparsely documented nature of this topic and the consequent challenges to research, employing the different approaches represented by different disciplines can be of great utility in giving us a fuller picture. In addition political/elite history is still the predominate focus of research on the Irish past, but a comprehensive understanding is only possible with a commensurate orientation towards the mass of the population. It is intended that the conference will attract the participation of people from different fields including post-medieval archaeology, historical geography, historical sociology, social history, and economic history (and others are welcome).

We are particularly interested in involving postgraduate students and early career scholars.

The conference will take place in N.U.I. Maynooth on Saturday the 31st of July 2010.

Persons interested in presenting should contact the conference organising committee Eoin O'Flaherty and Terry Dunne at classconferencenuim@gmail.com with the following:

• Working title of paper.

• An abstract of no more than 250 words.

• Contact details: telephone number, e-mail address, institutional affiliation.

• Audio-visual requirements (overhead projector, DVD, VCR etc.).

Deadline for submission of abstracts: Monday 21st of June 2010.

There may be a nominal registration fee (e.g. approx. €20) – further details to be confirmed, we would appreciate it if people planning on attending but not presenting also notify us by Monday the 21st of June at classconferencenuim@gmail.com

Learning from each other's struggles: invitation to present

2010-04-21T06:22:00.000-07:00

Social movement, activist & militant research workshop: producing knowledge for change

Dublin and Maynooth, June 18th, 19th & 20th

Social movements like community development, anti-capitalism, the women's movement, union organising, majority world solidarity, GLBT activism, anarchism and socialism, community education and community arts, migrant rights and anti-racism all produce knowledge for change.

Sometimes this knowledge is a radical understanding of how the status quo works and how it can be changed; sometimes it is expert knowledge of a particular issue that can be used in media and legal battles; sometimes it is research on movements themselves that can be used to get better at what we do; sometimes it is popular education work and radical teaching.

This weekend workshop is for people researching social movements, activist/militant researchers, adult and community educators and movement organisers thinking about the next step in a period of crisis. It is not a place for delivering conventional academic papers, but rather a workshop space for sharing skills, learning from each other's struggles and developing our practice. We are looking for 15-20 minute presentations that can be combined into joint workshops around particular problems in this area.

If you are interested in presenting, please email <hilary.darcy AT gmail.com> by Monday, May 24th with a short summary of what you would like to do (and any particular equipment that you need and can't bring yourself!) Suggested kinds of presentation could include but would not necessarily be limited to the following:

- History or genealogy of activist/militant research
- Presentation of a case where activist/militant research was conducted in order to develop social movement practices
- Workshop which shares the skills or one or more research method
- Theoretical presentation (e.g. Who are the agents of social transformation; the usefulness (or not) of social movement theory; etc.)
- How do we identify weaknesses in power structures?
- Social movement praxis
- Particular approaches to radical / popular / community education
- How does research become movement-relevant?

An initiative of:

· Participatory action research programme in social movement practice
(NUI Maynooth Sociology)

· Political Ethnography group, Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice (University of Nottingham)

Further updates will be available on this site, including booking details and a full programme.

Critical Education for Critical Times - Nottingham

2010-04-21T01:45:00.000-07:00

A day-long event with participatory workshops and dialogues around radical education linked to social movements. More details of the event here.

Masked Activists' Ball

2010-04-07T12:10:00.001-07:00

Not quite action research, but close enough that it might be interesting to some...

More info and poster here - it's the launch party for the new MA in Community
Education, Equality and Social Activism, Thursday 15th April in Seomra Spraoi.

Workshop: birth activism + PAR in social movements

2010-03-17T05:23:00.001-07:00

Research workshop:

Challenging the medical monopoly of childbirth: birth activism in Ireland

Panel discussion: participatory action research and social movements

Wednesday April 7th, 2 - 4 pm
Seminar room, Auxilia building, north campus, NUI Maynooth (see maps at http://www.nuim.ie/location/maps/index.shtml)

Christina Bermingham (DCU and NUIM) is carrying out PhD research into the practice of birth activists in Ireland, ranging from those campaigning for better funding for maternity services in hospitals to home birth networks. The first part of the workshop presents preliminary findings and issues arising in her research, which is being carried out on a participatory action research model.

The second part of the workshop is a panel discussion on the strengths and problems of participatory action research in practice, with Christina Bermingham, Jean Bridgeman (community education with drug users), Hilary Darcy (the policing of protest), David Landy (Jewish diaspora opposition to Israel) and Asia Rutkowska (the politics of visual identity in social centres). The discussion will be chaired by Laurence Cox.

The workshop is free and open to all. There is no need to book.

Workshop on presenting research, Maynooth Nov 4th

2009-10-27T12:58:00.000-07:00

There will be an action-research workshop on presenting your research in NUI Maynooth on Wed, November 4th from 2 - 4 (north campus, Auxilia building, seminar room - map on http://www.nuim.ie/location/maps/north.shtml)

The seminar will provisionally have two parts.

In part I, Terry Dunne will present a paper as the basis for general feedback / discussion on what works and doesn't work in presenting your research. Participants are asked to make supportive and constructive comments.

As often happens when presenting research on social movements or action research, we the audience will presumably be mostly unfamiliar with the subjects of Terry's research, with the kinds of lives people led in this context and the ways they acted. So we can experience something of what it's like for our own audiences...

The Law of Captain Rock

The Whitefeet movement was a combination of miners, agricultural
labourers and small farmers in Kilkenny and the Queen's County in the
late 1820s and early 1830s, particularly concentrated in the colliery
district to the north-east of Castlecomer and reaching a special
intensity between the autumn of 1831 and the summer of 1832.

The aspects of Whitefeet activity considered in this paper are those
where there was a parallel between the forms of the Whitefeet
combination and the forms of the state and of the ruling class in
general, this especially the case with practises from the legal
system. These aspects were the administration of oaths, a general
commonality in discourse especially as expressed in Whitefeet notices,
the use of exemplary punishment and finally the issuing of notices.

This consideration will involve such questions as to what extent did
these activities involve an appropriation from state practise on the
part of the Whitefeet and what does that appropriation tell us about
the social outlook of some of the participants in the movement. As
well as this there will be a discussion of what might be considered
similar processes at work in other movements in other settings along
with the theories advanced to explain them and their applicability or
otherwise to the Whitefeet movement.

In part II, Asia Rutkowska will share what she learned from a recent course on giving presentations, and we can use this as the basis for a more general discussion on what makes for an effective conference presentation.

All welcome.

Neoliberalism and Higher Education

2009-10-14T12:48:00.000-07:00

by Stanley Fish in New York Times opinion
http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/neoliberalism-and-higher-education/

I’ve been asking colleagues in several departments and disciplines whether they’ve ever come across the term “neoliberalism” and whether they know what it means. A small number acknowledged having heard the word; a very much smaller number ventured a tentative definition.

I was asking because I had been reading essays in which the adjective neoliberal was routinely invoked as an accusation, and I had only a sketchy notion of what was intended by it. When one of these essays cited my recent writings on higher education as a prime example of “neoliberal ideology” (Sophia McClennen, “Neoliberalism and the Crisis of Intellectual Engagement,” in Works and Days, volumes 26-27, 2008-2009), I thought I’d better learn more.

What I’ve learned (and what some readers of this column no doubt already knew) is that neoliberalism is a pejorative way of referring to a set of economic/political policies based on a strong faith in the beneficent effects of free markets. Here is an often cited definition by Paul Treanor: “Neoliberalism is a philosophy in which the existence and operation of a market are valued in themselves, separately from any previous relationship with the production of goods and services . . . and where the operation of a market or market-like structure is seen as an ethic in itself, capable of acting as a guide for all human action, and substituting for all previously existing ethical beliefs.” (“Neoliberalism: Origins, Theory, Definition.”)

In a neoliberal world, for example, tort questions — questions of negligence law — are thought of not as ethical questions of blame and restitution (who did the injury and how can the injured party be made whole?), but as economic questions about the value to someone of an injury-producing action relative to the cost to someone else adversely affected by that same action. It may be the case that run-off from my factory kills the fish in your stream; but rather than asking the government to stop my polluting activity (which would involve the loss of jobs and the diminishing of the number of market transactions), why don’t you and I sit down and figure out if more wealth is created by my factory’s operations than is lost as a consequence of their effects?

As Ronald Coase put it in his classic article, “The Problem of Social Cost” (Journal of Law and Economics, 1960): “The question to be decided is: is the value of the fish lost greater or less than the value of the product which the contamination of the stream makes possible?” If the answer is more value would be lost if my factory were closed, then the principle of the maximization of wealth and efficiency directs us to a negotiated solution: you allow my factory to continue to pollute your stream and I will compensate you or underwrite the costs of your moving the stream elsewhere on your property, provided of course that the price I pay for the right to pollute is not greater than the value produced by my being permitted to continue.

Notice that “value” in this example (which is an extremely simplified stand-in for infinitely more complex transactions) is an economic, not an ethical word, or, rather, that in the neoliberal universe, ethics reduces to calculations of wealth and productivity. Notice too that if you and I proceed (as market ethics dictate) to work things out between us — to come to a private agreement — there will be no need for action by either the government or the courts, each of which is likely to muddy the waters (in which the fish will still be dying) by introducing distracting moral or philosophical concerns, sometimes referred to as “market distortions.”

Whereas in other theories, the achieving of a better life for all requires a measure of state intervention, in the polemics of neoliberalism (elaborated by Milton Friedman and Friedrich von Hayek and put into practice by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher), state interventions — governmental policies of social engineering — are “presented as the problem rather than the solution” (Chris Harman, “Theorising Neoliberalism,” International Socialism Journal, December 2007).

The solution is the privatization of everything (hence the slogan “let’s get governments off our backs”), which would include social security, health care, K-12 education, the ownership and maintenance of toll–roads, railways, airlines, energy production, communication systems and the flow of money. (This list, far from exhaustive, should alert us to the extent to which the neoliberal agenda has already succeeded.)

The assumption is that if free enterprise is allowed to make its way into every corner of human existence, the results will be better overall for everyone, even for those who are temporarily disadvantaged, let’s say by being deprived of their fish.

The objection (which I am reporting, not making) is that in the passage from a state in which actions are guided by an overarching notion of the public good to a state in which individual entrepreneurs “freely” pursue their private goods, values like morality, justice, fairness, empathy, nobility and love are either abandoned or redefined in market terms.

Short-term transactions-for-profit replace long-term planning designed to produce a more just and equitable society. Everyone is always running around doing and acquiring things, but the things done and acquired provide only momentary and empty pleasures (shopping, trophy houses, designer clothing and jewelry), which in the end amount to nothing. Neoliberalism, David Harvey explains, delivers a “world of pseudo-satisfactions that is superficially exciting but hollow at its core.” (”A Brief History of Neoliberalism.”)

Harvey and the other critics of neoliberalism explain that once neoliberal goals and priorities become embedded in a culture’s way of thinking, institutions that don’t regard themselves as neoliberal will nevertheless engage in practices that mime and extend neoliberal principles — privatization, untrammeled competition, the retreat from social engineering, the proliferation of markets. These are exactly the principles and practices these critics find in the 21st century university, where (according to Henry Giroux) the “historical legacy” of the university conceived “as a crucial public sphere” has given way to a university “that now narrates itself in terms that are more instrumental, commercial and practical.” (“Academic Unfreedom in America,” in Works and Days.)

This new narrative has been produced (and necessitated) by the withdrawal of the state from the funding of its so-called public universities. If the percentage of a state’s contribution to a college’s operating expenses falls from 80 to 10 and less (this has been the relentless trajectory of the past 40 years) and if, at the same time, demand for the “product” of higher education rises and the cost of delivering that product (the cost of supplies, personnel, information systems, maintenance, construction, insurance, security) skyrockets, a huge gap opens up that will have to be filled somehow.

Faced with this situation universities have responded by (1) raising tuition, in effect passing the burden of costs to the students who now become consumers and debt-holders rather than beneficiaries of enlightenment (2) entering into research partnerships with industry and thus courting the danger of turning the pursuit of truth into the pursuit of profits and (3) hiring a larger and larger number of short-term, part-time adjuncts who as members of a transient and disposable workforce are in no position to challenge the university’s practices or agitate for an academy more committed to the realization of democratic rather than monetary goals. In short , universities have embraced neoliberalism.

Meanwhile, even those few faculty members with security of employment do their bit for neoliberalism when they retire to their professional enclaves and churn out reams of scholarship (their equivalent of capital) that is increasingly specialized and without a clear connection to the public interest: “[F]aculty have progressively . . . favored professionalism over social responsibility and have . . . refused to take positions on controversial issues”; as a result they have “become disconnected from political agency and thereby incapable of taking a political stand” (McClennen, Works and Days).

Of course that’s what I urge — not an inability to take political stands, but a refraining from doing so in the name of academic responsibility — and it now becomes clear (even to me) why McLennen would see in what I write an implicit support for the neoliberization of academic life.

When I say to my fellow academics “aim low” and stick to your academic knitting or counsel do your job and don’t try to do someone else’s or warn against the presumption of trying to fashion a democratic citizenry or save the world, I am encouraging (or so McLennen says) a hunkering down in the private spaces of an academic workplace detached from the world’s problems.

And when I define academic freedom as the freedom to do the academic job, not the freedom to expand it to the point where its goals are infinite, my stance “forecloses the possibility of civic engagement and democratic action.” (McClennen)

That’s not quite right. I don’t foreclose the possibility; I just want to locate it outside the university and the classroom. But for McClennen, Giroux, Harvey and many others, this is a distinction without a difference, for the result of what I advocate would still be faculty members who are “models of moral indifference and civic spectatorship,” at least when they’re being faculty members. (Henry Giroux and Susan Searls Giroux, “Take Back Higher Education.”)

By defining academic freedom narrowly, as a concept tied to a guild and responsive only to its interests, I am said to ignore the responsibility academics have to freedom everywhere, not only in the classroom or in the research library but in the society at large and indeed in the entire world. In the view of the critics of the neoliberal university, a limiting definition of academic freedom forfeits the good that academics, highly trained and articulate as they are, might do if they took a stand against injustice and unfreedom wherever they are found.

That line of reasoning leads directly to the academic left’s support for the boycott of Israeli academics, an issue I shall take up in my next column.

Related Posts
From Stanley Fish
To Boycott or Not to Boycott, That Is the Question
The Two Languages of Academic Freedom
The Rise and Fall of Academic Abstention
Are Academics Different?
The Last Professor

Action research workshop series / Marxism and social movements

2009-10-09T05:22:00.000-07:00

The participatory action research programme in social movement practice at NUI Maynooth Sociology is organising a fortnightly workshop series this year which some listmembers may be interested in. This will mostly be a writers' / presenters' workshop, with one participant either circulating a written piece of work or giving a presentation and others commenting on the form / delivery as well as the content of the work, but we will have workshops on other themes, including visiting speakers.

The first three workshops will be on Wednesdays from 2 - 4 in NUI Maynooth's Auxilia building (http://www.nuim.ie/location/maps/north.shtml for directions), with the first three sessions being October 21st, November 4th and November 18th. The opening workshop will be given by Laurence Cox on "Marxism and social movements", using a range of material from an international edited collection in the area.

All welcome.

Living learning and the University of the Poor

2009-10-09T05:08:00.000-07:00

Abahlali baseMjondolo, the South African shack dwellers' movement, has developed a powerful base of "movement knowledge" through its intellectual work as a "University of the Poor" (see
this link for more).

They've just co-published a remarkable document entitled "Living learning", documenting discussions between Abahlali activists and activists from the Rural Network. It's available for
download here.

Abahlali has just come under massive attack in the Kennedy Road, Durban, settlement, from paramilitaries linked to the local ANC (now a clientelist enforcer of neo-liberalism and no longer a popular liberation movement) supported by the police. Ongoing coverage here; one open letter is available for signing here.

Laurence