#21 Community organising: Part 1

#21 Community organising: Part 1

In the first of a short series of episodes exploring the topic of community organising, Sonali Bhattacharyya joins Tom to discuss anti-raids organising in Waltham Forest. How does a group form? What else in the wider ecosystem needs to be considered and engaged with? What works? What makes it sustainable and effective? Sonali talks generously and honestly about what she has learned and what we can all learn and do. The need for anti-raids organising is particularly acute at this moment, and there is much in this discussion that shows how interconnected and important other forms of community organising are in making this ground-level work effective. There is a lot of insight into the practicalities and what makes things work which listeners will find useful in their own activity. Links mentioned in the episode: Anti-Raids Network https://antiraids.net/ Everybody to Kenmure Street (doc) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everybody_to_Kenmure_Street Suburban Socialism by Oliver Durose https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/696636/suburban-socialism-by-oly-durose/ Defend The Community Organising Unit: Activists into Organisers by Tom Williams https://newsocialist.org.uk/activists-organisers/

#20 Your Party now

In this episode we revisit Your Party via two previous guests who were involved in organising within the party to learn about what has happened and what we might want to do next. Max Shanly wrote some of the most influential arguments ahead of the founding conference and produced actual working documents that added a level of development much less often reached. These things and further organising led to being deeply involved with groups that formed the Grassroots Left slate in the CEC elections. But after the slate associated with Corbyn and the party's bureaucracy won out the party has taken a different direction. Max talks about what has happened and what should be next. The After Party [https://medium.com/@maxshanly/the-after-party-d2ecc3a29170] Towards a New Model Left Party [https://medium.com/@maxshanly/towards-a-new-model-left-party-5947dc71b727] Andrew Hedges' was also very involved in organising around YP, albeit from some different positions, but also ended up looking beyond Your Party. After having studied and written up a critical account of the Green Party he has subsequently joined it, along with other socialists, seeing it as a more productive place to be. He takes us through the reasoning along with assessments of the Labour Party, the wider landscape, and with a maintained critical eye on the Green Party itself. Contingency, contradictions and change in the Green Party of England and Wales [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rOW9kfOkHfDXaZoTwcqSUEc2HhER7Tgj19EH-fi68pA/edit?tab=t.0] Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi's CEC report, mentioned in the first half: Full CEC Meeting Report - 12th April [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AvWXQybOIi2mOMGQAB4cJs42TgXbFg8jd2awRCu3dtc/edit?tab=t.0]

#19 Class—Part 3

This is the final episode of this series with Tom Gann exploring how Marx understood class, and how we can understand class. There is a lot covered in this interesting and useful discussion, including thinking about the complexities of working class groups interests or needs in relation to those of groups in the global south; the role of cheap food in the British class system; what happens with permanent increased costs of energy and other essentials; remembering that action precedes consciousness; and what to do with the middle and upper classes. Get stuck in! Check out our guest Tom's co-publication and writing here: https://newsocialist.org.uk/

#18 The Capitaloscene

It's not simply humanity that is dominant in shaping the world and the climate, it's Capitalism. This might seem like an obvious statement to our listeners, but in this episode Jason W. Moore shows how deep ideas counter to this go and have been absorbed by many of us concerned with acting on the climate crisis. Even the term 'climate crisis' can be understood so much better, and the history and processes that Moore explains teaches us a lot about the current situation and what we can do about it. Why did imperialism need to create 'nature'? Why do myths about overpopulation persist? What caused the end of Feudalism? What roles do gender, race, class and soil play in the dynamics of our world, and the web of life? How are current events shaping the re-alignment of responses to a fundamental change in climate systems? Answers to these questions and lots more to think about, and do. Jason's website: https://jasonwmoore.com/ [https://jasonwmoore.com/] New Socialist interview mentioned: https://newsocialist.org.uk/be-comrades-web-life-conversation-jason-w-moore/ [https://newsocialist.org.uk/be-comrades-web-life-conversation-jason-w-moore/]

#17 Palestine

Palestine, in fundamental ways, is not exceptional. And by understanding why this is the case we can organise and act in the best ways to liberate Palestine. In this episode we are very grateful to be joined by Rafeef Ziadah, Adam Hanieh and Robert Knox to talk about how to understand the situation of Palestine within the larger structures that shape the world today. Global capitalism, imperialism and the racialisation inherent to these systems. Palestine is a class society. Israel is a capitalist settler-colony. Imperial forces are driven by and use political-economic forces. Their book Resisting Erasure: Capital, Imperialism and Race in Palestine provides material analysis that shows how what underlies what is happening in Palestine relates to the wider region and to our own positions in other parts of the world. This helps us connect our organising in society, our unions and our parties with what is taking place in Palestine. And it prevents us from abstracting and exceptionalising what's happening in Palestine in ways that miss the real forces at play, that mystify our relationship to what's happening and that are racist. It's often said that Palestine teaches us, and Rafeef, Adam and Robert help us understand what we should learn, and what we can then know to do. Resisting Erasure: Capital, Imperialism and Race in Palestine by Adam Hanieh, Robert Knox and Rafeef Ziadah https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/3410-resisting-erasure?srsltid=AfmBOorDNdwtPMgAAwwWOWokQ6Vqqh3YU2o0K4n-a4O81kOfKW5gj0Cw The Oslo Illusion  https://jacobin.com/2013/04/the-oslo-illusion/