Press Release – September 10th

RiseUp!Radio Presents                                                     
The Sumac Debates

Nottingham residents involved in a community-based radio project have organised a series of debates to discuss how we respond to climate change and our need for energy, at community level. The debates also explore how we can organise and become stronger as communities, and how we resist the activities that threaten the stability of our local environment.

Debates organiser Renny Price, from St Anns, said: “We were wondering  if we should leave it to the government to sort out this mess we’re being lead into, or if it’s perhaps time to take responsibility for our own lives. We think maybe that means more than taking out the recycling, but actually getting to know and work with each other so we are less dependent on things like supermarkets and petrol pumps. The only way to be sure we’ll have what we need, is to start providing it for ourselves.”
The debates kick off on Tuesday 23rd September, at the volunteer-run Sumac Centre in Forest Fields, with discussions under the theme of ‘The State: Work with the Power’. People are being invited to speak about possible state led solutions to climate change, and discuss whether in a capitalist system they can be implemented by larger agencies and companies, for the benefit of the environment and all people.

The September 23rd debate is the first in a series of three. In October discussions will centre around people-led, or ‘grassroots’ approaches to challenges such as having less available and affordable energy, an unstable climate and shortages of food. Alan Martin, one of the presenters of the Riseup! Radio show, currently broadcast on a monthly basis through their website, says “it can seem like scary stuff, but I think we can face these things in a positive way. I think even in a highly populated city like Nottingham there is the space and the potential to re-localise production and for everyone to pick up skills that have been withered away by consumer culture.” Later in November the Sumac Debates will look at solutions such as urban agriculture, Transition Towns and non-hierarchical organisation.

The organisers have made sure the debates are free so that everyone can afford to attend. Directions to the Sumac Centre can be found on the Sumac Centre website at sumac.org.uk, and further information including contact details can be found on the radio project’s website at riseupradio.wordpress.com.
The debates will start at 7:30pm
finishing by 10:30, with a break.

The Sumac Centre,
245 Gladstone Street,
Nottingham
NG7 6HX

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Email: riseupradio@indymedia.org
Web: riseupradio.wordpress.com/the-sumac-debates