This blog is written in a personal capacity. Its mission is to both maintain and reflect my interests in activist/worker education, as well as those areas of interest allied to my equalities and diversity role at Equity, the union for workers in the creative industries. No aspect of this blog reflects Equity policy.
All being well you have an event planned for tomorrow.
If you need to see what events are taking place across the UK - perhaps you can join one if you have nothing planned in your workplace - please follow this link:
Just a brief post to give a plug for a fascinating new book (published by Rowman and Littlefield) by
Simon Springer, Marcelo Lopes de Souza, and Richard J. White. You can order a copy here:
As those who regularly read this blog will know, a key focus and interest of mine is the means by which activists learn and shape their craft. This new text enters this domain with a focus on anarchist geographies.
As the advertising blub states:
How do activists learn radical politics? Does the increasing neoliberalisation of education limit the possibilities of transgressive pedagogies? And in what contexts have anarchist geographers successfully shaped alternative pedagogic practices?
Pedagogy is central to geographical knowledge and represents one of the key sites of contact where anarchist approaches can inform and revitalize contemporary geographical thought. This book looks at how anarchist geographers have shaped pedagogies that move towards bottom-up, ‘organic’ transformations of societies, spaces, subjectivities, and modes of organizing, where the importance of direct action and prefigurative politics take precedence over concerns about the state. Examining contemporary and historical case studies across the world, from formal and informal contexts, the chapters show the potential for new imaginaries of anarchist geographies that will challenge and inspire geographers to travel beyond the traditional frontiers of geographical knowledge.
The case studies deployed to explore the core thrust include the Zapatista tradition of education as a formative anti-neo-liberal model to. There is an article in Roar Magazine based on this chapter:
Earlier this year the biography of Darcus Howe (activist, writer and broadcaster) Renegade: The Life & Times of Darcus Howe was re-published by Bloomsbury. Details are here:
Sadly, the news today is that Darcus Howe has passed away aged 74. There will no doubt be many tributes, but here's a link to an article in today's Guardian:
Growing up in Moss Side at a time of great economic and political turbulence, it was Darcus Howe through his writing and occasional appearances on television at the time, who made the greatest impact on me in linking contemporary racism to the UK's colonial past.
The tributes pouring in reflect his role challenging endemic racism in UK society, not least within state machinery, and particularly the police force. As is stated in the Guardian articled linked above: In a hugely varied and influential journalistic career, he was also an editor of Race Today, wrote columns for both the New Statesman and the Voice, and served as chair of the Notting Hill carnival. His television work included the multicultural current affairs documentary The Bandung File, which he co-edited with Tariq Ali, and more recently White Tribe, a look at modern Britain.
Howe's legacy is vitally important in the current context of Brexit and the rise of populist politics and the far right. Please look out for the many hundred of articles critiquing his life and political contribution.
