Saturday Febuary 21st,2009 // Organising Meeting for Anarchist Conference // London

Invitation for the 2nd anarchist conference organising meeting
=============================================

Date : Saturday 1pm-5m February 21st , 2009
Venue : Marchmont Community Centre, 62 Marchmont Street, London, WC1N 1AB
Nearest Tubes : Euston (10 mins) , Kings Cross (7mins) , Russell Square (2 mins)

We invite all anarchist and libertarians, groups and individuals to attend to the 2nd anarchist conference organising meeting. Following on from the previous meeting held at Conway Hall in London on January 17th, a practicalities group was set-up with the remit to book a venue for the conference. This has been done and will happen over the weekend of June 6th/7th 2009 at Queen Mary & Westfield University in Mile End, the same venue as the annual London Anarchist Bookfair.

The practicalities group has also suggested ideas of what groups and individuals should discuss before the next meeting so as to involve more discussions prior to the meeting happening. These are as follows and should by no means limit the discussion groups are having in relation this initiative.

To be discussed by your group before the next meeting:

1. Conference Aims
• Who is the conference aimed at?
• Why do we want it to happen?
• What is the purpose of the conference? (i.e. internal discussion for and by anarchist movement to address our politics issues, or an open invitation as a means of reaching the general public and promoting with our ideas and politics etc?)

2. Conference Format
• What format will the conference take?
• Lots of small groups discussing pr-agreed subjects? (Bradford model)
• Workshops by groups/individuals on particular subjects that anyone can attend (Bookfair model)
• Large open meetings, free for all of ideas

3. Conference Content
• What are the actual things we want to discuss?
(Suggestion: Content would be an ongoing process of discussion, debate and agreement as part of the organising process).

4. Conference Finances
• Discussion how we are able to finance the cost of the venue.
• Suggestions:
• Individual participants register: £10 for 2 days, £5 low/unwaged
• Group affiliation: £100 (solidarity prices)
• Supporters rate: £50/£30
• Other ways of raising the finance:
• Each region looks to host a benefit as a way to raise money and publicise the event.

Next Meeting
We agreed the purpose of next meeting was to set in motion and make concrete the aims, format and content of the conference itself (as discussed at the opening meeting).

To organise this conference we would need to decide on what and how working groups can be formed to take on specific parts of the organisational process. Please come with ideas on how this could work.

A full agenda will be drawn up and available to everyone involved before the next meeting. With that in mind we propose Feb. 15th be the cut off point for people to put forward discussion ideas, agenda items, formal proposals so all those attending the next meeting are fully aware of what is to be discussed and decisions that need making. Contact Us at: conference09@haringey.org.uk

--- End --