Been a Month

OK, it has been a month since my last post, and it looks like nothing has happened but that is just an illusion. I just haven't put the time aside to blog about it.

Here is a brief update-

I decided not to claim any benefits or to search for a job. I have plenty of other things that need to be done. I spent some time trying to organise a show of these Ken Saro-Wiwa posters by Emily Johns in the local library but the space is no longer available. So now I am planning a public showing of those posters at various locations. I have protested against the DSEi Arms Fair. The photo is me outside BAE headquarters holding another of Emily's posters.

But mainly I have been helping to organise the Rebellious Media Conference. Arranging accommodation for speakers, signs, stewarding and the stalls. So far those who have said they are coming- (apologies for the formatting, t'was a cut and paste job)

Active Distribution, Autonmedia, Ceasefire, Corporate Watch, Footprint workers co-op, Housmans, Feminist Library, New Internationalist, News from Nowhere, Open Rights Group, Peace News, Pluto Press, PPS-UK, Race and Class, Red Pepper, SchNews, Simpol, UK Feminista, visionOntv, World Development Movement, Zed books

Active Distribution, "Some time in the future we'll give a full history and explanation of why we do this but for the moment content yourselves with the knowledge that we are not professionals or even full timers. Active has always been a voluntary not for profit affair that may be best described as a "hobby gone mad".

In the meantime you may care to read the interview, done a few years ago.

Autonmedia, is an autonomous zone for arts radicals in both old and new media. We publish books on radical media, politics and the arts that seek to transcend party lines, bottom lines and straight lines. We also maintain the Interactivist Info Exchange, an online forum for discourse and debate on themes relevant to the books we publish.

Ceasefire, is an independent political and cultural quarterly publication founded in 2002, concerned with producing high-quality journalism, reviews and analysis. We cover a wide range of topics – from Arthouse to Žižek.

We aim to provide intelligent and thought-provoking discussion and analysis on politics, art and activism. We are motivated by a belief in the free exchange of radical and ground-breaking ideas. We are completely reader-sustained and accept no advertising or corporate/government funding of any kind.

Corporate Watch, Corporations have gained a power out of all proportion to their original purpose. We are a research group supporting the campaigns which are increasingly successful in forcing corporations to back down. Corporate Watch is part of the growing anti-corporate movement springing up around the world.

Footprint Workers Co-op, We are a small printers based in Leeds. We print booklets, zines, leaflets, stickers, newsletters, fliers, books, CD wallets and that sort of gubbins.

We are a workers co-operative, which means our business is owned by the workers. As we have no bosses we run it as we want, doing interesting jobs for interesting people.

Housmans, London's oldest radical bookshop, home to the weird and the wonderful, publisher of annual Housmans Peace Diary.We are a not-for-profit bookshop, specialising in books, zines, and periodicals of radical interest and progressive politics. We stock the largest range of radical newsletters, newspapers and magazines of any shop in Britain

Feminist Library, The Feminist Library is a large archive collection of Women’s Liberation Movement literature, particularly second-wave materials dating from the late 1960s to the 1990s. We support research, activist and community projects in this field.

We are based at 5 Westminster Bridge Road, London, SE1 7XW. Our opening hours are Wednesdays 6-9pm, Fridays 2pm– 6pm, Tuesdays (2nd & 4th of the month) 2-6pm, Thursday (2nd & 4th of the month) 6-9pmand the firth Saturday of the month 1.30-5pm.

The library is also open the first Saturday of every month for the Writer’s Space

New Internationalist, The New Internationalist magazine is published ten times a year. It sets out to explain and inform, giving readers the essentials of a subject in a concise, easy-to-read full-colour format with excellent photos and graphics. With over 30 years of publishing under its belt, and more than 45,000 subscribers worldwide, the New Internationalist is renowned for its radical, campaigning stance on a range of world issues, from the cynical marketing of babymilk in the Majority World to human rights in Burma. Publications from the New Internationalist are produced by an independent trust working as a not-for-profit cooperative.

News from Nowhere, are ...

• ...a workers' co-operative - The bookshop is owned & managed collectively by the paid workers - tasks, responsibilities & decision-making are shared.


• ...not for profit - No-one makes money out of the bookshop. Any profit remains within the business, paying for essential running costs & building up our stock. (Workers earn equal rates of pay - currently minimum wage.)


• ...committed to social change - We hope that the literature we stock empowers & inspires people to make positive changes to the world - from challenging the power of corporate capitalism to breaking down prejudiced attitudes to others & ourselves. Over the years we've supported and promoted many struggles for justice - including anti-apartheid, Troops Out (of Ireland), the Liverpool Dockers, and currently the Stop the War campaign. We refuse to stock anything that is oppressive - racist, sexist, homophobic or otherwise.

Open Rights Group, The digital age is transforming society: bringing us greater democracy, transparency and new creative possibilities. When these freedoms are under attack, the Open Rights Group is there to defend them. Founded in 2005 by 1,000 digital activists, ORG has become the UK’s leading voice defending freedom of expression, privacy, innovation, consumer rights and creativity on the net.

Getting into the political trenches in the UK and EU, we mobilise our supporters to stop bad laws. Working closely with other campaign groups, we lobby government and talk to the media whenever our rights are threatened

Peace News, Now in its 75th year Peace News is written and produced by and for activists, campaigners and radical academics from all over the world.

The editorial objectives of Peace News are to:

• support and connect nonviolent and anti-militarist movements
• provide a forum for such movements to develop common perspectives
• take up issues suitable for campaigning
• promote nonviolent, antimilitarist and pacifist analyses and strategies
• stimulate thinking about the revolutionary implications of nonviolence

Pluto Press, Pluto Press is one of the world’s leading radical publishers, specialising in progressive, critical perspectives in politics and the social sciences. Based in London, we have been active for 40 years and independent since 1979. We have more than 800 titles in print by authors such as Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, John Pilger, Susan George, Ziauddin Sardar, Greg Palast, Eduardo Galeano and Vandana Shiva.

Project for a Participatory Society U.K (PPS-UK) We are a network of people based in the UK committed to progressive social change. We see war, poverty, climate change and many other problems in the world today as unsurprising consequences of particular forms of social organisation. We see the erosion of civil liberties, the abuses of human rights, the increase in inequality and other injustices as resulting from the core values and internal organisation of dominant institutions within society.

It follows from this observation that changes in institutional values and social structures can result in a considerable reduction in (and possibly the elimination of) many of the worlds problems and social injustices. To recognise this is a very important first step. However, it is at the same time only a first step - and by itself does not count for much. Individuals all over the world could draw this conclusion but unless these people come together then what difference does it make.

If we are serious about progressive social change then we need a serious organisation that can bring about such changes. We need an organisation that understands how the world works today. We need an organisation that offers a compelling and popular alternative vision. We need an organisation that develops practical strategy for social transformation. In short we need an organisation that is intelligent - to overcome ignorance, offers hope - to overcome cynicism, and is realistic - to overcome apathy.

Race and Class, is a peer-reviewed, ISI-ranked publication, the foremost English language journal on racism and imperialism in the world today. For three decades it has established a reputation for the breadth of its analysis, its global outlook and its multidisciplinary approach.

Red Pepper, is a bi-monthly magazine and website of left politics and culture. We’re a socialist publication drawing heavily on feminist, green and libertarian politics. We seek to be a space for debate on the left, a resource for movements for social justice, and a home for anyone who wants to see a world based on equality, meaningful democracy and freedom.

Red Pepper is completely independent, and whilst not rejecting party politics, seeks to help build the kind of pluralistic, dynamic movements which can fundamentally challenge our economic system, with its entrenched injustice, structures of power and oppression, and tendency towards war and environmental destruction. Although based in London, we have links around Britain, and have always covered events and perspectives from outside the capital.

SchNews, The free weekly direct action newsheet published in Brighton since 1994. SchNEWS was born in a squatted Courthouse in Brighton in 1994 as part of Justice? - Brighton's campaign against the Criminal Justice Act. A few bright sparks decided to start reading out the news. Some of those bright sparks then decided to put some of it on paper - nearly ten years later and we're still printing! Featuring- Party & Protest, Crap arrest of the week and much, much more!

Simpol, What? Adopt Simpol and drive governments to work together to solve the cause of the urgent global security problems affecting everyone’s lives. It’s obvious, problems such as climate change, global debt crises, poverty, war and bio-diversity loss, desperately need global solutions. There are thousands of Simpol Adopters in over 70 countries.

How? Through Global People Power! By Adopting Simpol you automatically inform your MP that those who sign the Simpol Pledge win Adopters votes and those who don’t, lose them. It’s still your choice, but if they don’t Pledge, MPs can only pretend to have the solutions. 24 UK MPs have already Pledged.

UK Feminista, supports people to campaign for a world where women and men are equal.

Why? Because despite massive advances in the status of women, gender inequality remains rife in the UK and across the world.

We believe that political, economic and social equality between women and men is possible – and it is a world that will be better for all.

But progress doesn’t just ‘happen’. It takes ordinary women and men to stand up and be counted and create the world they want to live in. Our aim is to inspire and enable people to do just that.

visionOntv, visionOntv aims for the widest possible distribution of video for social change. visionOntv enables you to create and collate video: we create shows to put news in context, and collate the best social change video from around the world. We also curate it so that it can be found and enjoyed easily by anyone who wants to. There are currently 5 main channels of rapidly updating films, which are editorially controlled to ensure a good mix of quality content. The visionOntv site is a "golden ladle on the data soup".

visionOntv is also a source of in-depth and verifiable news, with fact-checking links to reliable sources. "Conversation is king. Content is just something to talk about." (Cory Doctorow) To that we add "and then take action about". That way leads to social change. Crucially we are creating social media toolkits around this content so that real communities of action can be built.

We enable members to build their own TV channel on their site. visionOntv aims to build flows of lasting and automatically-updating video content, not the "here today, and gone tomorrow".

World Development Movement, The World Development Movement (WDM) is a UK-based anti-poverty campaigning organisation. We have a worldwide reputation for tackling hard-hitting, controversial issues.We believe a fairer world is possible if together we take action. Just as campaigners stopped the transatlantic slave trade and won women the vote, we can end global inequality. "The World Development Movement is one of the most dynamic and successful NGOs I have known. I salute WDM!" - John Pilger, journalist and speaker at Rebellious Media Conference

Zed Books Zed Books is a critical and dynamic publisher, committed to increasing awareness of important international issues and to promoting diversity, alternative voices and progressive social change. We publish on politics, development, gender, the environment and economics for a global audience of students, academics, activist and general readers. Run as a co-operative, we aim to operate in an ethical and environmentally sustainable way.

I was looking for 93 people to support me as a Commons for £1 a week, and I have found 4 so far, and been given some very helpful advice. That plan hasn't gone away. I am still convinced that it is the best way forward. I just need to get this conference out of the way before I press on with that. I suppose what I have been doing for the last month is how I mean to continue...