If we are going to have another anarchist movement conference in 2010, then we need to start thinking about it and planning it fairly soon.
With this in mind a couple of us in London, who were involved in the planning of the 2009 conference, have been discussing the options.
At the same time we have been looking at the state of the anarchist and libertarian movement in the capital in 2009. What we would like, and it is the views of only two people, is that we organise an event like the 2009 Anarchist Movement conference in 2010 but for London only, as we need to get our house in order and make anarchism a threat in the capital again. But, we don’t want to lose what we started with the national conference, so our suggestion is that this event is a bi-yearly event that moves around the country, and planning for it starts at the 2010 London Anarchist Bookfair.
Who said you could make all the decisions!
We are not saying this is how it has to be. If there is energy from others to organise a national conference again in 2010, and preferably outside London (this was the feeling of the 2009 conference), then of course comrades should definitely organise it. All we are saying (as two individuals) is we want to put our efforts this year anyway into looking specifically at London being Londoners as we are.
What’s the thinking behind this then?
Presently, there is an initiative to bring together class struggle anarchist groups in London on a delegate basis. While we support this initiative, we also want to bring together the wider anarchist and libertarian disjointed movement in London which would include people not in specific groups; people who would call themselves anarchists and libertarians, but not specifically ‘class struggle’; and single issue campaigns that have a anarchist agenda.
We also feel there is a need to look at co-ordination of our activities on a London-wide basis and see where we are doing well and also doing badly. London Coalition Against Poverty is obviously a good example of a London wide strategy as is Radical London (which aims to get local groups established in every London borough). Freedom bookshop is fast becoming a hub for anarchist and libertarian activity in London as well. On the down-side, we have no effective legal support network (LDMG limps along as best it can), nor prisoner or workers’ support networks in place. We are also predominantly (although not exclusively) a white, able-bodied, male (and at times middle class) movement, which outside our own movement and friends very few people know even exist.
In London, we all know the problems. The clever bit is knowing what to do about it, and this is where we generally fall down, scratch our collective heads or ignore it and just go down the pub. While the two of us are by no means saying we have any of the answers, we at least think we need to start trying to look at the question. And our small contribution to get the ball rolling is to suggest a London-wide conference in 2010 similar to the recent Anarchist Movement conference where we come together to start the process of making anarchism (or whatever you want to call it) a dominant ideology again in the capital.
As a first step we will book a meeting in January to discuss the idea of holding said conference sometime later in 2010. The meeting will ask any anarchists, libertarians, Council Communists, Libertarian Marxists, Communists (well, the ones who don’t believe in the dictatorship of the proletariat anyway), and fellow travellers to come along. We also ask you to spread the word far and wide around London, as we accept Freedom hasn’t yet got the mass circulation it will one day have if we get our way.
You might think the idea is great. You might think it’s crap. Either way, it would be good for you to be at the meeting so we can let each other know how we feel. Obviously the format, length, venue, content of any conference will be decided by those who take a part in organising it. At the moment nothing has been put in place except this initial meeting.
