So this is me starting on a series of posts I’ve been planning for a while on the sustainability of political organising, something I’m interested in after seeing a couple of periods of political activity die away leaving not very much behind.
I met Judith Ryser recently at some thing. She has been involved in various types of political activism for some time, beginning with her initiation in Paris in 1968. She has also been involved in some analysis of that well-known period, including discussion of the fact that it didn’t quite work.
This clip is me asking about her experience in Paris in 1968. Apologies for the background noise – a lesson for me on the limits of my camera mic:
Here I ask a rather leading question and Judith compares the Situationists with the Bromley-by-Bow Centre, a more structured form of organising with a more limited mandate:
And here we talk about the Bromley-by-Bow Centre’s ability to sustain itself: