The South London Mayday Festival of Alternatives
co-ordinating group is finally having a swift and
painless meeting for all those interested in
being involved.

Thursday February 21st

The Union Tavern Pub (we will be in a room inside
called 'The Latin Palace')

On the junction of Camberwell New Road and Vassal
Road, Camberwell.

Buses: 36 and 185 or many many others which go to
Camberwell Green (lots from Elephant and Castle,
Brixton and Peckham) - the pub is about a 5-10 minte
walk from the Green

Nearest Tube: Oval
Nearest Train: Vauxhall, Denmark Hill BR

7.30pm

We will discuss ideas for film showings, workshops,
art exhibitions, temporary autonomous zones, picnics,
gigs, action and making this mayday as fun and
resistant as possible.

Contact: 07786 716 335

 festivalofalternatives@yahoo.com

North London is also holding a Mayday Festival of
Alternatives meeting on the same night, Feb 21st, 8pm,
at Sebbon Street Community Centre, Sebbon Street,
behind Islington Town Hall, nearest tubes Highbury and
Islington and Angel

Main Mayday meeting is taking place on Sunday 24th Feb
at The Calthorpe Arms pub on Grays Inn Road, 2pm,
nearest tubes - Kings Cross/Chancery Lane


Below is the text of the original festie proposal, which has an emphasis on attracting non-activists:

Festival of Alternatives

Origin?

Inspired by a month of dissident art/culture events in
France,
held this year in response to the irrelevance and
media saturation
of the General Election 2001. It is also a model used
worldwide to encourage political awareness and
expression,
i.e Festival Des Pueblos in Boston, USA - May 2001.

What is it?
7-14 days of workshops, film showings (in all kinds of
places),
art exhibitions, music, discussions and actions which
reflect
the future kind of society we want to have after the
fall of
capitalism and which reflects the creative DIY culture
of
autonomy, co-operation, solidarity and ecological
harmony

When?
Before and after Mayday

What's it for?
To show people (including us) how they can control
different aspects of
their lives; e.g. their food,
their homes, and their environment, and also what they
are capable of
if
they (we) co-operate, share
knowledge and come together.

To cultivate a popular critical understanding of the
role of the state,
consumer culture, capitalism
and wage labour.

To generate a sense of practical autonomy and an
experience of mutual
aid
and free association,
plus an understanding of anarchist (green, feminist,
communist,
syndicalist, etc) politics and goals.

To create and demonstrate an alternative way of life
under capitalism
and
ultimately, collectively,
beyond capitalism

To make change.

Contents
Independent music, theatre, art, street parties, film
showings - in
parks,
on buildings, squatted buildings, community centres
etc, parties, gigs,
picnics, raves

Art exhibitions and installations in 'strange
locations', outside
supermarkets,
in trees, on commons, carparks, outside and inside art
galleries, shopping centres, the streets.

Surveillance camera playing

Gigantic picnic, everybody welcome, homeless, not
homeless etc food
making,
vegan and vegetarian
cooking, vegan food tasting, Food Not Bombs, recipe
sharing etc
Sport tournaments: basketball, footie, baseball,
radical histories

Workshops on:
Health: the health system, pharmaceutical industry,
alternative health,
herbalism,
complimentary therapy, first aid.

Mental health: history of the mental health system,
the asylum and
psychiatry,
changing clinical definitions, depression,
schizophrenia, women and
mental
illness, Mad
Pride.

Squatting: History,Who are squatters? Why do people
squat? What are
squatted
buildings used for? e.g. 1946 post-war squatted army
huts in Scunthorpe
and
Stratford
etc, Atherden Road, Italian Social Centres, Amsterdam
squat bulldozing
1980s, army
storming, the 121, land squatting, homelessness.

Gardening: how to grow food and flowers on concrete
and out of a tires;
how
to
start up your own allotment, window box, grow-bag
patch, herb garden,
city
garden;
composting; seed exchange; the politics of food
production and food
security, GM,
monocrop culture, agribusiness and bio-diversity,
controlling your own
food
production;
guerrilla gardening.

Elementary electronics, plumbing, mechanics and
furniture making:
learn how to fix your car, bike, pipes, sink, toilet,
boiler, radio,
telly,
cabinets,
wiring; Carpentry: make tables, cabinets, shelves, a
chair, revamp old
stuff.

Alternative Technology: Not hippy shit; how to make
your own toilet,
treehouse;
Ecotrip and Centre For Alternative Technology talks;
green energy -
costs,
possibilities,
implications, and rewards; solar/wind power, bicycle
generators; energy
conservation;

Direct Action: What is it? Why do people do it? Who
are RTS, Earth
First,
the
Wombles, Black Block etc etc; UK and global
perspective on headline
grabbing and
effective protest, disrupt the myths, reclaim the
history.

Teen-space workshops: media production, differences
between corporate
media and independent media; writing, journalism,
documentary making,
film,
drama,
art, and photography.

Parents: Clothes making/customisation, toy making,
write your own
children's
books

Radical history talks and tours, UK primarily but
world-wide
too: the great strikes - 1921 National, Miners';
social disobedience -
polltax nonpayment,
supermarket take-overs in Italy, Tube Jumpers Union;
factory occupation
syndicalist waves, Bolivia Anti-Privatisation,
Zapatistas, BRA, Paris
1968,
Kent State
Uni, Panthers, Angries,Weathermen, Red Army Faction,
Red Brigades,
Spanish
Civil
War - international brigades, OPM, Kenyan Greenbelt
Movement. Black
Plaques
-
marking sites of insurrection, e.g Newgate Prison
liberation, now Hyde
Park
area;
homes of the Angry Brigade; walking/drinking tour of
Marx's pubcrawl
boozefest
down Tottenham Court Road circa 1847 etc

Legal knowledge Know your rights regarding
immigration, Stop and
Search,
Public order, Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE),
Criminal Justice
Act, Terror Bill
2000, and new emergency Anti-Crime and Terrorism bill,
Divorce,
renting,
squatting,
employment law, police harassment, racial harassment.

Self and Community Defence: kickass protect yourself
kung fu! Community
crime fighting, role of Tenant's Associations, victim
support,
preventative
action projects.

Drugs: as experience and commodity, community
destruction, ghetto
flooding
i.e
1980's CIA crack flooding spree in the US; Plan
Columbia; drug
economies -
global production
context, where did that line come from? Drug Mules,
drugs
fetishisation,
drug
abuse, 'powers' festishism, false empowerment?
History,
criminalisation,
legislation.

Anarchism - in practice in a global historical context
i.e not just
past
150 odd
years, and all old European white men with beards, but
in terms of
actual
social
organisation. African anarchism, anthropology,
cultural relativism,
societies without
money or wage labour, primitivism, Coconut Revolution.

Strikes: the history and role of trade unions, great
strike victories,
legislation,
strike support groups, wildcat-ing

The Dole: history, recession - why does it keep
happening? Causes,
consequences,
how markets and capitalism work; welfare
restructuring, legislation,
JSA,
claimant's
unions, recalcitrance, Co-ops - what are they? How
d'you start one up?
Workers
against work.

Where will this all happen?
Community centres, parks, playgrounds,
workplaces, public places, corporate places,
secret places, backyards, gardens, car parks,
buildings, the streets.

What's needed?

Spaces

transport, tools, money, website,
central office, ideas, enthusiasm, skills,
commitment.

Contact: 07786 716 335

or

 festivalofalternatives@yahoo.com (from where you can be sent the original PDF)