Waving, not drowning: rampART 2009 and beyond

from email, 11 January 2009:

WAVING, NOT DROWNING

rampART 2009 and beyond…

Despite rumours to the contrary, rampART Social Centre and Creative Space is very much alive, well and ready to connect.

We’ve had our problems over the past year, not least because we’ve been preparing for an eviction that hasn’t happened. Bowl Court was amazing but, ultimately, devastating. In its short life it showed us what a social centre can potentially realise but it also took energy and resources away from rampART and left us with a building in dire need of renovation and an exhausted and dissipated collective.

So much for the past. Now for the future…

A renewed rampART collective has been fixing up the building and getting it ready to be a fully functional social centre again. The bailiffs might come tomorrow but we’ve decided to take that chance. In the spirit of the social centres movement and in keeping with all temporary autonomous spaces, we’re living as if the future has already happened. This means that we’re ready to re-open the building for events, meetings, workshops, exhibitions, crash space and anything else that establishes a base for realising a more egalitarian and socially conscious world.

rampART already hosts the London Free School and the Radical Theory Reading Group and is the base for East London Food Not Bombs. We’ve established a rota to ensure better opening times and what we need now is proposals for projects which can make full use of the facilities. We’ve got a large library/meeting room, an even larger hall with a stage and our own PA system, as well as smaller meeting rooms and a well equipped kitchen.

We meet every Monday at 7pm to plan activities and hear proposals. If you need space to realise a project or if you’re already involved in one and want to meet others with the same aims we would love to meet you. Alternatively, if you would like to help run the social centre or would just like to find out more about rampART, come and join us for a cup of tea either at the meeting or at the first of our regular cafe evenings, January 15th 2009, starting at 7pm.

rampART Social Centre and Creative Space, 15-17 Rampart Street, E1 2LA
www.rampart.co.nr

EVENTS AT RAMPART

-= THURSDAY 15 JAN =-

Weekly cafe/film/info night at Rampart

Here at the Rampart we are establishing a regular cafe/film/info night on Thursdays as part of our new lease of life (not the rental kind obviously). The cafe is intended to be an evening that people can come and run in co-operation with ourselves. Different groups are invited to run the cafe to generate funds and put on films or talks of their own. Contact us to book a slot for the cafe, email rampart@mutualaid.org.

First cafe night is Thursday 15th January which we will be running as our first relaunch event, possibly with films and talks about the ongoing Greek protests, tbc next week.

-= FRIDAY 30 JAN =-

Radical Theory Reading Group

First reading group of 2009 will be Friday, January 30th in the newly repaired and somewhat warmer rampART library (therampart.wordpress.com), starting at 6pm.

We’ll be reading Chapter 5, ‘Ideas in Action: Rhizomatics, Radical Democracy and the Power of the Multitude’ from Jeremy Gilbert’s Anticapitalism & Culture and Chapter 6, ‘Ethics, Affinity and the Coming Communities’ from Richard Day’s Gramsci is Dead. Downloads here http://www.box.net/shared/btebt07iy8 and here http://www.box.net/shared/qfvxbtzc1d.

Blog, as ever, has been updated (radicaltheoryreadinggroup.blogspot.com).
Comments welcome.

-= FRIDAY 6 FEB =-

Crossing Channels 2

No Borders London party and fundraiser for transnational solidarity
more info soon.

EVENTS ELSEWHERE

SUNDAY 11TH JANUARY - ANTI-FASCIST SPECIAL

2:30 “Hitler’s Children” (1943) Dir: Edward Dmytryk
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034856/

4:00 “It Happened Here” (1965) Dirs: Kevin Brownlow / Andrew Mollo
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055024/

-= MONDAY 12 JAN =-

Climate Rush Hits Heathrow

Climate Rush invites you to Dinner at Domestic Departures, Terminal 1, Heathrow Airport, on Monday 12th January 2009.

In the spirit of the Suffragettes, we will arrive in Edwardian dress (under a big coat!) with hampers of food to have our picnic. It will take place on the day that the MPs return from their winter holiday.

When the string quartet plays its first note we will reveal our dress and share our food. Hundreds will join us and together we will make history. We have waited too long and been misled too many times. It is time for us to take control and to lead social change.

No Airport Expansion!
No Domestic Flights!
Trains Not Planes!
www.climaterush.co.uk

-= WEDNESDAY 14 JAN =-

TALK & BOOK SIGNING

‘Britain’s dirty role in global mining’

with Roger Moody
Wednesday 14th January - 7pm

Leading mining activist, Roger Moody exposes the role played by the UK government, investors and companies, in promoting mining: one of the world’s most damaging industries. Roger will also be signing copies of his two latest books.
www.housmans.com/events.php

Synopsis
The global ‘credit crisis’ has provide a unique opportunity to transform one of the world’s most damaging industries – as long as we get onto the streets and into the board rooms. So says Roger Moody, a leading mining activist, investigator and author.

As a co-founder of Minewatch International and current managing editor of the Mines and Communities website, Roger has unique experience of researching the impacts of this “hidden” sector and working with affected communities around the world.

In tonight’s talk, he will emphasise specifically the roles played by the UK government, investors and companies, in promoting one of the dirtiest industries on the planet.

Roger will also sign copies of his two latest books:

Rocks & Hard Places: The Globalization of Mining (Zed Books)

‘Moody’s reputation as a fair and judicious critic makes his most recent book a must-read for anyone with a serious interest in the globalization of mining.’- Stuart Kirsch, Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Michigan

‘Moody brings passion and objectivity to the mining debate’ – Business Standard (India)

The Risks We Run: Mining, Communities and Political Risk Insurance (International Books)

‘Comprehensive, powerfully argued, well informed and thoroughly researched, Roger Moody’s book offers the ultimate statement on the uneasy relationship between mining corporate power and local communities characterised by wealth and technology asymmetry, livelihood struggles and political instability.’ - M. A. Mohamed Salih, Professor of Politics of Development, University of Leiden

http://www.minesandcommunities.org

-= WEDNESDAY 4 FEB =-

Culture (and Cultural Studies) After the Crunch: the End of Neoliberalism?

10.30am-5pm, February 4th, 2009

At Rich Mix, London.

Organised by the Pavis Centre for Cultural and Social Theory, The Open University & the Centre for Cultural Studies Research, University of East London

The crisis of financial markets and the cheap-credit economy is interpreted by many as spelling the end of the 30-year neoliberal regime which has had such profound political, social and material consequences for world culture. Are we now witnessing the opening of a new conjuncture? What might be the social and cultural consequences of emergent forms of re-regulated capitalism? Does the Democratic landslide in the U.S. Presidential election presage an upsurge of progressive political activity -from within and outside government - in the Anglo-Saxon world, as did the elections of 1932 and 1964? Or has the cultural impact of neo-liberalism changed forever the meaning of ‘progressive’ cultural and social forces?

Speakers
Prof. Tony Bennett (Open University)
Prof. John Clarke (Open University)
Prof. Nick Couldry (Goldsmiths College)
Dr. Jeremy Gilbert (University of East London)
Prof. Lawrence Grossberg (University of North Carolina)
Prof. Mica Nava (University of East London)
Dr. Jason Toynbee (Open University)

Tea, Coffee and Lunch will be provided

For free registration send an email to Fernando D. Rubio:
f.d.rubio@open.ac.uk

Directions:

Rich Mix, London.
35 - 47 Bethnal Green Road
London
E1 6LA

Map here

Tube: Liverpool Street
Buses: 388, 8

Should you have any query please contact Fernando Domínguez Rubio (f.d.rubio@open.ac.uk)

[original article]