Grassroots Gathering 5 in Dublin this Saturday

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday June 25, 2003 12:35 by GGfan

The fifth grassroots gathering will take place this weekend, from Friday the 27th of June until Sunday the 29th, in the Teachers club, 36 Parnell Sq. West, Dublin 1

The programme is extensive: 19 workshops,
45 invited speakers, 2 plenary sessions, 10 films, 2
walking tours, 5 physical activities, a social night,
a benefit gig and specially featuring 2 invited guests
from Argentina's social movements who will be giving
two public meetings. The first, on Friday night, will
take the form of a political puppet show, while the
second, on Saturday evening, will be a description of
the social upheavals there from the point of view of
an unemployed, 'piquetera' activist.

The programme has been finalised and is available to
download and print out. You can get a full copy of
the programme (12 A5 pages - 590kB) at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gg-antiwar/files/GG5/programme-for-web.pdf

There is also a smaller (double sided A5 - 152kB)
leaflet available with the timetable attached at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gg-antiwar/files/GG5/gg5-flyer.pdf

And an A4 poster at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gg-antiwar/files/GG5/gg5-poster.pdf.

There is also a flyer, advertising the benefit gig
available at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gg-antiwar/files/GG5/gig-flyer.pdf

How can you help?

Grassroots Gathering 5 is being run on a shoestring by
a small team of volunteers. We have been able to
offer such an extensive programme as many people have
already volunteered their services for free. To make
the weekend go smoothly we need people to help out in
a number of ways:

1. Come along! The most important thing that you can
do is to come along and bring your energy, ideas and
enthusiasm and an open mind.

2. Help publicise it. Download flyers and posters
and print them out to hand out, or just let your
friends and family know about it.

3. Give a donation. Although, for the scale of the
event, our costs are small since many volunteers have
donated their skills and labour for free, we still
have to pay for printing, flights for the Argentinians
and the rent of the venues. We are currently about
800 euros in debt. So any money that you can donate
to help cover the costs would be warmly welcomed. If
we do cover our costs, any extra money that we take in
will go towards the defence of those people who were
charged as a result of anti-war activity.

4. Volunteer to help out by manning the registration
desk, facilitating a meeting or some such task. There
is a meeting of the organising team at 6pm in the
Teachers club, on Friday night. There will also be a
training session for facilitators at 8pm. If you want
to help out, you could come along to this. Otherwise,
we will be looking for volunteers for a number of
tasks during the introductory session (Friday 7-9pm)
and the opening circle (Saturday 10-11 am).

What should you bring?

A) Yourself !
B) A bit of energy, enthusiasm, cheerfulness,
friendliness and interest in other people if you can
manage it!
C) Info about your own group, specially stuff to help
make links with other groups and activists most of the
people at the Gathering will not be anonymous
"punters" but busy activists.
D) If you want to take part in the 5-a-side soccer
tournament (all day Saturday + Sunday morning),
try to bring a bike! (Weíll try to have bikes
available too.)
E) If you want to do the Indian Head Massage workshop
(Saturday afternoon), bring a towel to
cover the top of your body (unless itís something
youíd like to share with the rest of us!)
F) Donations! The Gathering has no money at all, and
itís costing about 750 - 1000 euros to run it.
G) If you want to do the Yoga workshop bring a track
suit / sports gear and a mat if possible.

What can we provide?

We can provide sleeping space for those who need it.
This will be sorted out on Friday night during
registration. However, if at all possible, please let
us know in advance if you need somewhere to crash and
any special needs that you might have.

We are trying to provide a basic child minding
facility (although kids are welcome at meetings) but
this pretty much depends on demand. If there is
enough demand we will try to make sure that there is
somewhere safe to leave the kids, if not we will at
least organise some volunteer babysitters to take the
kids to the park and give the parents a break. This
depends on you letting us know in advance. So if you
do need somebody to mind your children, please let us
know as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, we have no facilities for preparing
food in the venue, so attendees will have to fend for
themselves. On the plus side, there is a park
directly across the road from the teachers club which,
weather permitting, would be perfect for a picnic.
There are also many restaurants, cafe's and food shops
in the area. There is also a bar in the venue.

If you want more information, you can contact us:
by phone 087-9934150
by email grassrootsfive@yahoogroups.com
On the web: http://grassrootsgathering.freeservers.com

For those who can't be arsed downloading a pdf, here
is the full agenda in text format:
Friday June 27th

7pm - 8pm
Welcomes, registration, sorting out floor space for
visitors

8pm-9pm Introductions:
? What is Grassroots Gathering?
? Groups introduce themselves
? Training session for facilitators

9pm-10:30pm
Argentinian piquetera puppet show

Saturday June 28th

10am - 11am
Welcome and opening circle: "who are we and why are we
here?"

11:30am - 1pm Networking workshops:
? Networking between movements: how are we doing?
? Opposing the war: what next for the Grassroots
Network Against War?

Discussion / Debate workshops:
? Is social partnership going anywhere?
? Progress for who? Whose progress? Nature, technology
& humans

2:30pm - 4pm

Networking workshops:
? Opposing neo-liberalism in Ireland
? Keeping going: dealing with defeat and burnout

Action / Skills workshops:
? Direct action, the bins, the bombs, the boulders and
the bunkers...
? Building links to community groups.
? Space is the place: creating, sustaining and
defending autonomous spaces

Activity: Yoga

4:30pm - 6pm
Networking workshop:
? Defending / developing diversity

Action / Skills workshops:
? Preparing for the WEF
? Creating our own media

Discussion / Debate workshops:
? How should we make decisions? Theory and practice of
grassroots organisation
? Who pays for the environment?

Activity: Indian head massage

6:30pm - 8pm
Road blocks, area assemblies and factory occupations:
experiences from the grass-roots movements in
Argentina

8pm - Late!
The Gathering storm: Benefit gig for Grassroots
Gathering & Shannon Prisoners (Gingerman pub)

Sunday June 29th

11am - 12:30pm
Activities:
? Monto walking tour
? The trees & history of Phoenix Park
? Poi workshop

1:30pm - 3pm
Networking workshop:
? Report back from Evian protest

Action / Skills workshops:
? Co-counselling for activists
? FEICed off ? Actions for Ethical Investment (art
workshop)
? Prisoner support

Discussion / Debate workshop:
? What kind of world do we need?

3:30pm - 6:30pm
Plenary Session: Where to now?
? Preparing for the World Economic Forum
? What next for the Grassroots Gathering?