Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Oxford Action Resource Centre event report

Houmous Hero | 19.09.2010 20:24 | Free Spaces | Oxford

The Oxford Action Resource Centre (OARC) [1] held a brunch and fun day on Sunday 19 September. It went better than I expected :-)

I have been involved in OARC for around two years. It always seemed to me to fill a much needed gap in offering a space for community, social, and environmental groups a space to be active in Oxford. Something that nobody else offers (or at least not at a price that people could afford). And I really like the idea of bring different groups together under a common slogan of 'a better world is possible, we have to make that world ourselves ... Let's work together to do this.'

For the two years I've been involved, it has not always been easy. At one point we struggled to pay the bills, then make sure the room was accessible for as many groups and people that wanted to use it as possible.

So I, one of the world's great sceptics, went along to the brunch and fun day with a certain amount of ... well, scepticism.

I am delighted to report that my scepticism was mis-placed. At least 10 people came to the event, and everybody contributed to making it a really positive and forward looking day.

The day started with a brunch based on houmous, bread, and fruit salad - all provided for free thanks to some skipping that a few people had done the day before. But this wasn't just standard houmous. It had green bits in it as well. Coriander houmous is the way forward!

Having sated ourselves on chickpeas and apples, people then moved on to card games and tidying OARC & fixing things (the cupboard doors now can not only be closed, but they can be opened again - yay!).

After a couple of hours of playing, fixing, and tidying we all came together again for a meeting - we are activists of one type or another, so we cannot do anything without a meeting! We thought about what the future of OARC would be, and what we could do in the short term to make this happen. An extremely positive and energising discussion followed where we agreed many things including:
# Hosting film nights - check the OARC calendar for details  http://theoarc.org.uk/cal/index.php .
# Running workshops and facilities that might include providing Internet access for sanctuary seekers, IT for non-techies, and making props for campaign groups.
# The potential to reorganise the layout of OARC to make it more comfortable and accessible to as many groups as possible.
# Hosting a community based radio station.
# And much more that I cannot remember right now.

We all left OARC with a firm commitment to put our grand words into action. And I, for one, felt incredibility positive about the future of OARC.

We agreed that we would get together again in a month's time (likely to be Sunday 17 October - check the OARC calendar [  http://theoarc.org.uk/cal/index.php ] or the OARC mailing list [  https://lists.riseup.net/www/info/oarc ] for the latest updates. If you have been involved in the past, or if you are completely new to OARC, we would love for you to get involved.



[1] OARC started over five years ago to as a faculty (both a physical space, and also a psychological space) for people to organise radical, community-based, and positive alternatives to the world we live in. Amongst other things OARC has a meeting space, free computing, and a library. OARC is run by volunteers and relies on donations to continue. Anybody is allowed (indeed encouraged) to be involved in the running of OARC or to use the facilities.

Houmous Hero
- Homepage: http://theoarc.org.uk/

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech