The theme this year was ‘The Media as a Political Weapon’, and we had excellent speeches from people such as Greg Philo of the Glasgow Media Group, Anna Wagstaff of the Oxford NUJ and Judith Brown from Arab Media Watch.
The afternoon’s entertainment was astonishingly varied, including Geoff Berner and his friends from Canada, Attila the Stockbroker with both poems and songs, and many more (see www.levellers.org.uk). Delicious Indian vegetarian food was available all day.
We Indy types managed to get in a 2-minute plug for Oxford Indymedia, immediately after Anna Wagstaff’s speech, but there was no other mention of Indymedia and, as far as I could gather, just a nod in the direction of alternative media sources on the part of Greg Philo. This was disappointing for us as we consider that Indymedia, though still fairly small and immature, has great potential on several counts: by providing self-publishing facilities for all, it can in principle greatly extend the range of news available to people, so bypassing many of the problems associated with the corporate media. It can also have an empowering effect on those contributors who have hitherto felt themselves to be ‘voiceless’, and thereby reinforce democracy (etc., etc!!).
SWP stall
NUJ supports BBC strike
Warwick Hall Garden
Greg Philo
A rapt audience
Speakers
Anna Wagstaff
Assembling in front of Warwick Hall
Cry Havoc Morris dancers
Roundheads
Woodcraft Folk 1
Leicester CND
Shared Sky Venturers
Chipping Norton Labour Party
Oxford PSC
Woodcraft Folk 2
Cheltenham Pioneers
Sea Green Singers
Faringdon Peace Group