Peace News Summer Camp is an annual five-day, family-friendly event that attempts to embody many of the characteristics of the future society towards which we’re working – inclusive, democratic, participatory, renewably-powered and environmentally sustainable. It’s an opportunity for a broad spectrum of people – activists, community organisers and other people working for and exploring radical social change – to come together and develop our intentions, priorities, knowledge, strategy, skills and networks in support of our different movements, be they anti-racist, environmental, global solidarity, anti-war, feminist, localisation, anti-cuts, counter-militarist, disability, LGBTQI, food sovereignty, radical health and other movements for transformation.

Link to camp website:  http://peacenewscamp.info/2013/peace-news-summer-camp-2013-taking-a-lead-from-the-global-south/

There will be workshops and discussions, practical skills sessions, delicious vegan food, music, film, and participatory entertainment, a bar, a campfire, and activities and facilities for kids and families.

The theme for this year’s camp is Taking a lead from the Global South. We’ll be creating opportunities to:

* celebrate what the global majority movements of the Global South have contributed to movements in the UK
* discover what movements in the Global North can learn from those in the Global South
* make global connections between local struggles
* think about what it means to build real solidarity with movements in the Global South

Taking a Lead From the Global South will be a core strand of the workshop programme, which will also cover a range of other topics. The workshop programme will include:

* Zapatismo Now – Learning from the Zapatistas and 500 years of resistance
* Reclaiming the City: Practical strategies for reclaiming our streets
* Deschooling society: A Black perspective
* A culture of resistance: The story of Pan Africanism
* From Global Corporate Monopoly to Local People’s Economies
* Turning the world the right way up: Global feminisms
* Standing our ground: Peace Communities nonviolently taking back their land in Colombia
* Between NATO, the warlords and the Taliban: Peace activism in Afghanistan
* Finger on the trigger: Western nuclear terrorism since 1945
* Demonising Muslims: Why Islamophobia is more popular than ever
* After Chavez: Creating alternatives to neoliberalism in Latin America
* Radical media reporting the Global South: potential and pitfalls

Black Leadership

For this fifth Peace News Summer Camp, for the first time the organising committee are all of global majority heritage. This is an expression of the commitment of Peace News, and of the Summer Camp, to work against racism, and to give an opportunity for new ideas and voices to enter. The new organising collective has added these dimensions to the agenda of the camp:

* celebrating what global majority groups have accomplished in struggles for social change around the world
* helping us better understand and overcome the racism of the societies in which we live
* helping us to understand the connections between racism and other forms of oppression, including those based on disability, class, gender, sexuality and age
* giving us an opportunity to learn more about how different forms of oppression are affecting our struggles and ourselves and to think about how we can move forward in challenging them so that we can work together more effectively for social change.

Peace News Summer Camp is an inclusive event, open to everyone who’s been before, and to everyone else – from all backgrounds – who would like to explore radical ideas and share social change skills.

Tickets & Food

The camp costs £20-£70 depending upon income (for those over 14). Payment can be made by cheque, online or by phone:
- online purchases here [ http://peacenews.info/civicrm/event/register?reset=1&id=6]
- 0207 278 3344 for purchases by phone
- Send cheques (payable to “Peace News” to Peace News, 5 Caledonian Rd, London N1 9DY), explaining how many tickets you’re purchasing and at which rates

Food (3 meals a day and drinks) will cost £6-£11 a day for over-14s, depending on income, and should be ordered before the camp starts. Individuals meals will be available to buy at the camp. Food tickets will be available in April.