Around 80 people turned up tonight in Oxford to hear the SchNEWS crew in their 10th Anniversary Tour, hosted by Oxford Indymedia. The evening was a complete success; very inspiring to see how much you can achieve just by believing in what you are doing, just by really doing something concretely! This is what direct action is all about: do something, right here, right now!
The evening started with a few short "subverted" films, quite funny... Then the SchNEWS crew introduced themselves and showed us a few more "serious" films about activism; a blockade in Cambridge against Bayer and the GM crops, and other films as well, including the famous "Meatrix" :-). It was inspiring to see the general enthusiasm when these films were shown.
Someone then explained to us what happened to the buses that were stopped and refused to go to Fairford when the war started. This incredibly frustating story was then showed to us in a film. This film should be seen by anyone who believes that the police really "protect" the people...
Then as most people were hungry we ate amazingly good free food, asked for donations to the cooks; many thanks to the cooks! While we were happy eating our meal we heard about the history of SchNEWS, how they work, why they are doing what they are doing, how they are doing it, etc. This was followed by a concrete discussion (for which we decided to move the chairs into a circle to make it more inclusive) on what we can do now, in Oxford, locally, thinking globally, about what is happening in the world. We all agreed that other worlds are possible; how can we make them happen, now, here, in Oxford?
Unfortunately, due to technical reasons we had to leave the East Oxford Community Centre while the discussion was only starting. But fortunately, an "after-event" was already planned in OCSET, the new social centre, 220 Cowley Road, so the discussion was only postponed for later! :-)
Most people moved on down the road to OCSET, where an "informal" meeting was held on what we should do now against the occupation of Iraq, especially now that hundreds of civilians have been killed by American occupation forces in Falluja. Many ideas were proposed, and some concrete actions were planned. Let's see what will happen in the following days...
Another meeting was planned to organize more actions against the occupation of Iraq, which will take place next Wednesday, April 21st, 6:00pm, at OCSET.
Followed a nice happy-youppi social party at OCSET where people got to know each other... a perfect evening!!! Thanks a lot to the SchNEWS people for coming down to Oxford! :-))
Someone then explained to us what happened to the buses that were stopped and refused to go to Fairford when the war started. This incredibly frustating story was then showed to us in a film. This film should be seen by anyone who believes that the police really "protect" the people...
Then as most people were hungry we ate amazingly good free food, asked for donations to the cooks; many thanks to the cooks! While we were happy eating our meal we heard about the history of SchNEWS, how they work, why they are doing what they are doing, how they are doing it, etc. This was followed by a concrete discussion (for which we decided to move the chairs into a circle to make it more inclusive) on what we can do now, in Oxford, locally, thinking globally, about what is happening in the world. We all agreed that other worlds are possible; how can we make them happen, now, here, in Oxford?
Unfortunately, due to technical reasons we had to leave the East Oxford Community Centre while the discussion was only starting. But fortunately, an "after-event" was already planned in OCSET, the new social centre, 220 Cowley Road, so the discussion was only postponed for later! :-)
Most people moved on down the road to OCSET, where an "informal" meeting was held on what we should do now against the occupation of Iraq, especially now that hundreds of civilians have been killed by American occupation forces in Falluja. Many ideas were proposed, and some concrete actions were planned. Let's see what will happen in the following days...
Another meeting was planned to organize more actions against the occupation of Iraq, which will take place next Wednesday, April 21st, 6:00pm, at OCSET.
Followed a nice happy-youppi social party at OCSET where people got to know each other... a perfect evening!!! Thanks a lot to the SchNEWS people for coming down to Oxford! :-))