libcom features/collections
Oct 30 2006 16:49
Been thinking about this.
Would be good to have a way to highlight some of the big areas of the site, and at the same time sort out the features page?
We've got loads of stuff on:
Strikes
Russian Revolution
Hungary '56
Paris '68
Solidarity UK
CPE
etc. etc.
but they aren't linked from anywhere prominent yet.
We could sort the features index out and have a bit of it for sections like that. Also it'd be good to have sticky articles at the top of each of the big sections explaining what they're about, linking to related tags, have a nice photo/graphic etc.
Also, I thought we should consider putting requests for articles about specific subjects. I finished reading the "Occupational Therapy" pamphlet I picked up at the bookfair - about the UCH strike and occupation in 1993/4 (which RM wrote most of and is really fucking good), and thought it'd be cool to put out an appeal for articles on "strikes in the UK in the last 20 years" and similar stuff like that.
Also, 90th anniversary of Russian Revolution is coming up, and then Paris '68, Czechoslovakia '68 and Germany 1918 in just over a year. Again we could try to fill those sections out as much as possible in advance, then really push them when they come up.
Not much of an idea but thought I'd get it started, since the features index is pretty much broke now.
Oct 30 2006 22:16
#2
Hi, yeh all v. gd ideas - I'm happy to help with all that.
Btw, that UCH pamphlet was a total flop, didn't sell at all, we ended up leaving 100s at a couple of squat centres.
Oct 30 2006 22:59
#3
Dammit- I wanted one but didn't get around to buying one. catch waved his copy at me comtemptuously
Oct 31 2006 00:14
#4
RM, shame about the flop, also disappointed I didn't get to meet you. I have a pamphlet on how to organise hospital occupations to go in library soon too...
catch - great idea. can pad out features cos right now it's shit.
wildcat strikes is good too, probably best collection of texts on the net.
requests for articles is good - also requests for students to do dissertations/research on certain topics might be good too?
Oct 31 2006 01:51
#5
Ret Marut wrote:
Hi, yeh all v. gd ideas - I'm happy to help with all that.Btw, that UCH pamphlet was a total flop, didn't sell at all, we ended up leaving 100s at a couple of squat centres.
That's a shame, wish I'd read it before Broadway Market kicked off for a start. Do you have it electronically at all? If not I might OCR it at some point.
Oct 31 2006 19:00
#6
Catch - I think someone has just scanned it in - I'll get it from them and put in the library. How did you find it relevant to Broadway Mkt?
Pingtiao - I think there's still one or two copies in the back room at Housmans in the pamphlet rack, maybe at Freedom too?
Nov 1 2006 14:49
#7
Ret Marut wrote:
Catch - I think someone has just scanned it in - I'll get it from them and put in the library. How did you find it relevant to Broadway Mkt?
Cool about the scanning, that'd be great!
Broadway Market, given what's been happening with the NHS the past couple of years and my local hospital up for the chop, if the energy that went into BM went into stopping a ward/hospital/health centre closure, it'd have far more potential to circulate elsewhere since it's very much a tangible national issue. That wouldn't have happened though since BM was (is) very much around a couple of people's particular situation, at least for those at the centre of it (which I wasn't).
BM was a lot better at getting large numbers of people involved though. The fact that the SWP had a go at both campaigns, although they managed to do very little with BM at all so it shows they've retreated a bit in 13 years. Both of those things were encouraging considering the activity itself - even the re-occupation, was very similar.
Nov 1 2006 22:10
#8
Well the SWP more or less controlled the UCH union branch, therefore controlled the strike, so they were at the heart of it from the start, while the occupiers were originally motivated as supporters of the strike, and most were local.
Hackney is still more of a centre for the kind of politicos that would get involved in something like Brdwy Mkt (though I'm sure it wasn't only politicos) - whereas the apathy of the local public, including regular UCH outpatients, was overwhelming. Also, the anarchoes - CW, ACF and some others at best visited UCH occupation once, left their papers, promised support and were never seen again; just like the trot groups. It just wasn't a glamorous enough issue for them, was my conclusion. Or maybe the people involved weren't anarchist enough for them (i.e. sectarianism)? Which was annoying for its hypocrisy, but wasn't very important as the occupation needed more local people rather than more political activists.
I know little about the Mkt campaign, but now it seems to be mainly fundraising to continue one person's legal case over his shop.
It would be interesting to compare how much enthusiasm there is for any sustained campaign to save the hospital.
More like this
- Excellent pamphlet on how to run hospital occupations
- Occupational therapy - the incomplete story of the University College Hospital strikes and occupations of 1992-4
- battle for broadway market dvd's available now
- battle for broadway market dvd's available now
- Occupation Of 34 Broadway Market, E8 - info and updates
Yeah very good ideas. Way to go is with the features section