Defragmenting our selves
I haven’t posted much on the history of political organising but recently someone recommended to me the out-of-print book Angry Young Man. This is the autobiography of Leslie Paul, a founder of the Woodcraft Folk who saw at first hand many of the political movements of the early 20th Century. It is well-written and…
This is something of a follow-up to the previous post, as I have just been reading about someone else, James Meade, who proposed a Citizen’s Trust that would hold shares on behalf of the population – a type of property ownership certainly more real than Thatcher’s version in which we all own a lot of…
In 2011 the Colombian government proposed a sweeping marketization program for the Colombian higher education system, including allowing private capital to invest in public universities. Students across the country rose up to fight the proposals. By the end of the year the protests against the reform had forced the government to abandon their plans. Since…
They came from all over Colombia, riding in buses and chivas, many from hundreds of kilometres away, to meet in Bogota under the slogan: “People building peace for a life of dignity.” The Congreso Para La Paz in Bogotá this weekend was the culmination of a long process of building a people’s agenda for peace….
On April 9 people and organisations travelled from all over the country to Bogota to join a march of hundreds of thousands that ended in the Plaza Bolivar. The march was originally organised by Marcha Patriotica and gained the backing of the mayor of Bogota and President Santos himself. Carlos Eduardo, an indigenous campaigner who…
A thousand women’s rights campaigners marched through Bogota on 6th April 2013 for the right of women to behave and dress as they like. Joining a global trend of similar annual “slutwalks”, as they are known in English-speaking countries, the participants in the “Marcha de las Putas” in Bogota demanded a change in attitudes towards…
Post by Nachopolis, a Spanish exile in London: The financial crisis seems to be moving towards new territories. Please read Unrest drags Spain towards buried unpleasant truths. Its a good introduction on how the crisis may eventually lead to serious security problems in Spain – and open up a new landscape in the development of…
If you google ‘dignity at work’ you get a bunch of websites against bullying and harassment in the workplace. But I have met plenty of people who are not bullied or harassed in the workplace who still give the impression their work, roles or treatment at work are not dignified. There are a lot of…
This site is a way to collect my thoughts on organising as it is practiced. Some of it will be not much more than notes, other posts will be reposts of things said elsewhere, others will be more expanded. It is about the culture and methods and ethics of organisations. It will hopefully be a…