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Radical Activist Network 5 March, London

Radical Activist Network | 12.02.2004 17:04

The newly-launched Radical Activist Network will hold its first public meeting on Friday, 5th March, when author and anti-war campaigner Tariq Ali will join speakers from Italy, France and South Africa to explore how grassroots internationalism can help shape the future of oppositional politics in Britain.

Speakers:
Tariq Ali - writer
Annick Coupe - SUD PTT union, France
Marco Berlinguer - Transform & Partito della Rifondazione Comunista, Italy
John Appollis - Anti-Privatisation Forum, South Africa
Annie Pourre - No Vox, France

7pm, Friday 5th March
Hong Kong Lecture Theatre, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London WC2.
Nearest Tube: Holborn

Across the globe an extraordinary range of groups and movements are challenging the rule of the American empire and the US model of neoliberalism.

The globalisation of this resistance has been embodied in the growth of the World and European Social Forums. In Mumbai, Porto Alegre, Florence and Paris, hundreds of thousands of activists have come together inspired by the idea that another world is possible. In November 2004 London will host the next European Social Forum.

The meeting on Friday 5th March offers all those inspired by the anti-war and Social Forum movements a chance to learn lessons from overseas and to take part in an open and informed discussion on our future work.

The Radical Activist Network is a network of individuals active in the movements for social, economic and environmental justice and against war and repression. Our aims are to provide a space for activists to discuss common strategic and political issues, to encourage pluralist practices and structures, and to co-operate with others to support and initiate campaigns.

We are united in the following principles:

- An opposition to all forms of oppression, exploitation and domination in society, which dehumanise people, destroy our natural environment and reduce life to a system of economic values.
- A rejection of top-down, hierarchical and authoritarian models of political organisation.
- A belief that radical and sustainable social change can only be achieved through collective, grassroots organisation based on solidarity, equality, democracy, openness and respect for others.

email:

info@radicalactivist.net

http://www.radicalactivist.net

Radical Activist Network

Comments

Hide the following 5 comments

Yawn

12.02.2004 18:19

I was involved with Tariq over the Stop the War group in our area and he has a curious "I need to know everything" agenda that we found concerning.

Have nothing to do with the man, I think he is far to close to elements in the Security Services to be fully trusted.

Christos

Yes !!

13.02.2004 08:50

At last another person saying what we have been voicing for years. Tariq Ali is a man to be wary of. We all remember how Peter Hain was "assisted" for 12 years by his mate at the Anti South Africa campaign who turned out to be an MI5 man from day one. CND were completley infiltrated during the anti-nuke days at Greenham.

Ali always wants to know the details of who is involved and whre they are from. Be very careful.

Dreamweaver

trust no one = do nothing

13.02.2004 12:18

Hmm.. trouble is if you're suspicious of everyone it becomes difficult to get much done.

Ask yourself, so what if someone is a state mole? What harm can they do? (1) They could discover secrets. But what secrets? (2) They could misdirect the movement. But none of us know for sure which strategies are more or less effective anyway, why assume the state are any more certain than us?

Strikes me it's quite funny if MI5/6 plant moles in 'subversive' groups. In effect they're using taxpayers money to subsidise those groups with extra staff!

kurious

kurious sensible as ever shocker

13.02.2004 15:07

Quite right. The trouble with so many opponents of State Power is that they seem to regard the state as this all-powerful monolithich entity which has unlimited power.

This just isn't true. Recent events re. Iraq and Hutton, to name but two, have revealed the badly-named "security services" as the bunch of incompetent nobbers that they've always been.

So the anal bastards scribble notes and keep files on "activists". So what? What good does it do them? The KGB infiltrated MI5 and MI6 pretty comprehensively during the Cold War and what happened? Nowt. No Soviet invasion, nada.

Tariq seems a good and sincere sort, even if I don't agree with all his politics. He won me over when he refused to share a platform with Clare Short, saying "I was feeling pretty ill already but the news that I'd have to appear with Clare Short was just too much."

Fnarr.

Mad Monk

trust

14.02.2004 11:59

Everyone is capable of betrayal and breaking trust. At some point you have to risk trusting, knowing that might be broken. At least Tarik Ali has stuck to his political line throughout the years, unlike Peter Hain who has completely sold out to the establishment.

The Anti-Privatization Forum is a sound grassroots organisation fighting the cruelty of the privatization of water and electricity in South Africa where people who can't pay are cut off, causing outbreaks of cholera. It is worth attending to listen to what is really happening in South Africa. The New Labour regime has a big hand in the till in South Africa, assisting BAE in bribing the government to buy arms and British NGOs have made millions 'advising' municipalities there on 'how to privatize' . Students on British Council scholarships come to the UK to learn about public administration and the privatization process. How neo-colonial.

megan

UK Indymedia