W.O.M.B.L.E.S. COMMUNIQUE - NEW MEETINGS

(please forward this email to any groups or individuals you think may be interested).

After a period of sober and intelligent discussion, the London Wombles have decided to restructure our meetings to make the best possible use of the time and space available and to give space to the things we feel are important. We will no longer have the normal Wombles meetings, but instead 4 monthly meetings on specific areas of interest.

We feel that some of these meetings/forums are movement wide, and are more inclusive and of interest to more people than the tactic we are best-known for.

This is not, by any means, an end to the Wombles tactic. This will still be used whenever it is needed, hopefully by a growing number of people. The new meeting structure is to try and address the fact that we do a lot more than dress up like michelin men and get beaten by the cops, and also to try and build a more cohesive and socially based movement.


1. London Underground / Networking meeting

1st Sunday of every month starting on Sunday 3rd Feb, 2pm.
Venue: London Action resource centre, corner of Fieldgate St. and Parfett St., London E2 (nearest tube: Whitechapel or Aldgate East)

Some of us would like to try and revive the idea of some sort of London-wide networking meeting in the style of the old London Underground.

So far we've come up with having a monthly rather than weekly meeting, at a weekend, in the afternoon (so people with kids can come and bring their kids), with childcare facilities with proper child-minders.

Maybe a short networking meeting/feedback from different groups on what they're up to, followed by food and maybe a film or social afterwards.

We've realised that there is really no forum for all the activists and groups to meet in London, or for new people to come to. It has also seemed recently, that when particular movement wide events such as Gothenberg,Genoa and Brussells happen there is no forum within our movement for discussion, film showings, international networking etc, and that on some occasions the initiative has been seized by GR who have more resources than us.

Anyway, the idea is, that everyone come to the first meeting and say what they they want this to be.

(There won't be childcare at the first meeting, cos we'll need to see if different groups are happy to chip in a bit of money for this every month).

2. Practical tactics workshop.

2nd Wednesday of every month, starting on 6th February, 7.30pm.
Venue: The Exchange, Sebbon St, Islington (behind Islington Town Hall), nearest tube Highbury and Islington.
Nice vegan food provided.

This is a monthly tactics workshop which will include various forms of direct action and self-defence. So far, suggestions for workshops include:

1) Wombles tactics, including padding-making, public order law and self-defence law.
2) Office occupation tactics, including planning, locking-on, dealing with staff of the place you are occupying, dealing with police and legal advice on tresspass etc. Possible talk from "Those Pesky Kids" - stars of the Argentinian Embassy occupation.
3) Reclaiming buildings, including how to get a building, dealing with the owner and police, legal advice.
4) Radical self-defence workshop.

3. Building Liberation

3rd Wednesday of every month, starting on 16th January, 7.30pm.
Venue: The Exchange, Sebbon St, Islington (behind Islington Town Hall), nearest tube Highbury and Islington.
Nice vegan food provided.

This is a monthly forum for anyone involved or interested in being involved with social centres. The main aim of a monthly meeting is not to form a new group but rather to build a network of social centres in London - both permanent spaces that have been bought (e.g. LARC, Emmaz) and reclaimed spaces - to provide mutual aid, advice and skills sharing, a phone tree, regularly updated website listing all social centres, and eventually to be able to defend our spaces.

Another aim is to set up social centres that are used by the communities they are situated in, and to begin to build a social base.

Some of us are already planning to open a social centre in NE London in the next couple of weeks. We need lots of help and equipment(everything from cooking equipment to leaflets for an infoshop) so please bring anything you've got spare, but most importantly energy and ideas and an electric cooker.

4. Wombles Campaign meeting.

4th Wednesday of every month, starting on 23rd January, 7.30pm.
Venue: The Exchange, Sebbon St, Islington (behind Islington Town Hall), nearest tube Highbury and Islington.
Nice vegan food provided.

This will be a monthly meeting and the most similar week to the normal wombles meetings. The idea is to choose a long-term campaign issue (e.g. asylum-seekers/detention centres, wage-labour/dole) and build a long-term and focused campaign around it. This will involve political discussion, writing of agit-prop and a series of actions over a period of perhaps 6 months.

This is to get away from doing random and disconnected actions and make sure we are able to follow up actions, make links with other groups interested in a particular issue, build some social awareness of the campaign and link each individual struggle with the wider sruggle against capitalism.

5. 5th Wednesday of the month - if there is one.
starting on 30th January, 7.30pm.
Venue: The Exchange, Sebbon St, Islington (behind Islington Town Hall), nearest tube Highbury and Islington.
Nice vegan food provided.

We will drink strong alcohol, eat nice food (especially plantain), and argue about political stuff.

Love and Rage,

The W.O.M.B.L.E.S.