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Grass Roots Gathering Belfast

category national | miscellaneous | news report author Monday October 14, 2002 01:30author by darren - Grassroots Gatheringauthor email grassrootsbelfast at yahoo dot comauthor address 1-5, Donegal Lane, Belfastauthor phone 00447759598798

The 3rd Grassroots Gathering: The third Grassroots Gathering takes place in Belfast from the 25th – 28th of October (A Bank Holiday weekend in the Republic). It’s happening at Giros. The Belfast GG kicks of with a ‘critical mass’ action on Friday the 25th meeting at City Hall at 5.30pm (so bring your bike if you can). Workshops & discussions will take place throughout Saturday & Sunday. There are planned around 20 workshops, on issues such as gender, direct action, Sellafield, Peoples Global Action, Media Activism, creating social spaces, European Social Consulta, Anti-war Actions. There will be entertainment throughout the weekend with films, games & music (Giros hosts Irelands only d.i.y. venue ‘the Centre’). Monday the 28th has been set-aside for Actions, which will be planned over the weekend.

The 3rd Grassroots Gathering:

The third Grassroots Gathering takes place in Belfast from the 25th – 28th of October (A Bank Holiday weekend in the Republic). It’s happening at Giros (also know as the BYCG & Warzone Centre) 1-5 Donegal Lane. (Check out the website on http://www.geocities.com/warzonecollective ).

If you don’t know about the Grassroots Gathering here’s some blurgh:
So far the grassroots gatherings have aimed towards creating a network, which would
- Be based on the principle that people should control their own lives and work together as equals, as part of how we work as well as what we are working towards.
- Within the network this means rejecting top-down and state-centred forms of organisation (hierarchical, authoritarian, expert-based, Leninist etc.). We need a network that's open, decentralised, and really democratic.
- Call for solutions that involve ordinary people controlling their own lives and having the resources to do so: the abolition, not reform, of global bodies like the World Bank and WTO, and a challenge to underlying structures of power and inequality.
- Organise for the control of the workplace by those who work there.
- Call for the control of communities by the people who live there.
- Argue for a sustainable environmental, economic and social system, agreed by the people of the planet.
- Working together in ways that are accessible to ordinary people, particularly women and working-class people, rather than reproducing feelings of disempowerment and alienation within our own network.

The 2 Previous GG’s have taken place in Dublin & Cork you can read reports & check out some pictures @ http://grassrootsgathering.freeservers.com/index.html

The Belfast GG kicks of with a ‘critical mass’ action on Friday the 25th meeting at City Hall at 5.30pm (so bring your bike if you can). Workshops & discussions will take place throughout Saturday & Sunday. There are planned around 20 workshops, on issues such as gender, direct action, Sellafield, Peoples Global Action, Media Activism, creating social spaces, European Social Consulta, Anti-war Actions. There will be entertainment throughout the weekend with films, games & music (Giros hosts Irelands only d.i.y. venue ‘the Centre’). Monday the 28th has been set-aside for Actions, which will be planned over the weekend.

Accommodation (crash space) is available, there will be kids activities, wholesome, tasty, & cheap vegan food will be provided. Please contact us & tell us your coming so we have an idea how many people to expect.

If you have any special dietary/accommodation needs please contact us so we can accommodate you. Giros disabled access is not good if you have special needs please contact us in advance & we will try to work something out.

Over the weekend volunteers will be needed for various task, specifically cooking & helping with kids activities. If you’d like to volunteer in advance that would be great.

Contact:

Mail:
Grassroots Gathering
C/o Giros
1-5 Donegal Lane
Belfast

e-mail:
grassrootsbelfast@yahoo.com

Phone:
07759598798
(00447759598798 from ROI)


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