What Happened at the Last
Grassroots Gathering In Belfast?
There
have been several highly successful Grassroots Gatherings across Ireland in the
past three years. The previous
Grassroots Gathering in Belfast held over the weekend of October 26th
– 27th 2002, it brought together over one hundred grassroots
activists, environmentalists, union members, feminists, working people,
anarchists, children and other assorted troublemakers from across the island
and beyond. There were almost 20 different workshops on a wide variety of
topics including Gender, Direct Action, Social Centres, Opposing US Military
Use of Shannon Air, Workers Control, Reclaim the Streets, Confronting
Sectarianism, and Forest Gardens.
It
took place in Giros, which was a democratically managed social centre in
Belfast, with gigs, meetings, a cafe, a darkroom, a library, and much more.
Given
the international situation, unsurprisingly talk about the war took up a lot of
time. One excellent workshop was introduced by the Shannon plane spotters of
Refuelling Peace. The discussion following this was mostly about schemes to
establish a peace camp at Shannon, creating a democratic anti–war network and a
call for a further demonstration at Shannon warport. These proposals were then
taken to the Morning meeting, i.e. to all folk at Grassroots, not just
attendees at one workshop.
Many
concrete plans and ideas emerged from the many workshops during the two days,
including the formation of a grassroots network against the war, the staging of
Reclaim The Streets, and the suggestion to host a People's Global Action
conference in Ireland. In fact the only problem that seemed to occur was that
of two or more interesting workshops coinciding and the sheer lack of time to
attend everything.
A special word of thanks has to go out to the Belfast
crew for all their hard work and the organisation of this Grassroots Gathering.
It was a roaring success thanks to their hospitality and meticulous attention
to detail!
To receive further information about
this grassroots gathering contact:
By email
contact us at grassrootsbelfast2@safe-mail.net
Belfast - c/o
PO Box 505, Belfast, BT12 6BQ
Telephone: (UK) 07729785327
More information on the web at http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=66080
or http://www.mallusk.net/grassrootsgathering