The writer still believes that OCSET and also the Cowley Club which is in Brighton and not Cowley is only for one group of people, not really for the community. There are other clubs left after it has closed.
I am sorry in a fashion that Ocset is closing, but surely these people can understand that Mr Kandola wanted the building that is his. If they want a social centre, they must pay their rent as all the other clubs.
Always it is described as a much needed social centre, but it is only for a certain group of people, just like the gladiator’s club or the Asian cultural centre or the conservative club. It is not the answer to any real widespread need for the whole community of this district as they would like to pretend.
I
Please can Mr Demeanor explain me, what is the difference between a drinking parlour and a community resource, please ? Which is the famous village pubs ?
Mr Serendipity also says that the conservative club is “a clique propping up their own cheap private drinking club”. He says to me to read about the Cowley Club. I have read. The Cowley Club “supports radical co-operatives - those opposed to capitalist systems of hierarchy” and it has “a private members bar during the evening”. So it is like the conservative club. They are in favour of the capitalist system, I think, and they support Mr Howard’s triumph, so they are not just there only either for their subsided jar.
Always it is described as a much needed social centre, but it is only for a certain group of people, just like the gladiator’s club or the Asian cultural centre or the conservative club. It is not the answer to any real widespread need for the whole community of this district as they would like to pretend.
I
Please can Mr Demeanor explain me, what is the difference between a drinking parlour and a community resource, please ? Which is the famous village pubs ?
Mr Serendipity also says that the conservative club is “a clique propping up their own cheap private drinking club”. He says to me to read about the Cowley Club. I have read. The Cowley Club “supports radical co-operatives - those opposed to capitalist systems of hierarchy” and it has “a private members bar during the evening”. So it is like the conservative club. They are in favour of the capitalist system, I think, and they support Mr Howard’s triumph, so they are not just there only either for their subsided jar.
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totally missed the point
30.04.2004 08:39
However, as I have experienced at the Cowley club, it operates as a seperate function during the day, a cheap cafe offering excellent food at prices you wont find anywhere else, a library and bookshop. This is open to the public as any other cafe is, and is genuinely frequented by a truly diverse range of people, from old folk to students to shoppers etc. It DOES serve a true community function.
In the day it runs free benefit advice drop ins, and information resource, a kids club and also has offices for community and activist groups.
In the evening it becomes a private members club, with a members sign in and the advantage of not having to deal with random drunk idiots, it makes an environment very safe for children as you know who you are going to get in there yet it has a very high number of members (a year ago it was 1000+). It has a completely different atmosphere to a normal pub or any of the 'facilities' in Oxford. It feels very different to have a haven fromt he world of corpoarte consumer culture outside its doors, and yes, to drink amongst like minded people. Try it and find out.
As for you noxious comparison to the conservative club, this shows how wide of the mark you actually are. Supporting Mr Howards triumph? Well I do know people at the Cowley club who squatted his front garden and hung banners from his roof in protest at his 1994 criminal justice bill which incorporated the changes to squatting law which have made the eviction of OCSET possible. ALso I was not talking about the conservative club as a a clique propping up their own cheap private drinking club but the east oxford community centre, which, having experienced the cowley club, is exactly that nad not somewhere I am comfortable to frequent anymore.
Furthermore, you are extremely presumptious and narrowminded to assume that I am MR Serendipity. Please open your mind.
Miss Serendipity
cliquey?
30.04.2004 14:23
-OCSET is not primarily a drinking club; in fact alcohol only features in special occasions.
-You do not have to be a member of any club to join in with events at OCSET.
-OCSET is open to ANYONE. No-one (except bailiffs, police etc of course :) is going to be turned away. Of course, inevitably some people are going to identify more with the style, image and politics of the place than others, but we are actively trying to combat this and encourage the whole community to join in. I don't see the conservative club doing that, do you?
-Finally, it wouldn't have hurt the landlord AT ALL to let us stay until the end of June, when the next tenant moves in. The building will be completely empty and unused for this time...
c_m