on the subject of Dissent replacing DGN what has happened to DGN? is it still kicking? it seems absurd that it could put together the Mayday 04 events and then drop off the map.
DGN always had a pretty precarious existance and the pulling off of Mayday without any bigger fuck ups was something of a miracle and more due to people doing well under extreme pressure than anything else.
It's existence never amounted to much more then Dissents existence - a sequence of meetings at which a couple of dozen people would turn up and a set of sub groups that did a lot of the concrete organisation out of these meetings. With Dissent there was much less need for these sub groups to function and the numbers were a bit lower but otherwise they are pretty much the same thing (and at this stage involve a lot of the same people).
the only way (i think) to keep such a group together is through a grand project which more or less glosses over the differences, without this i don't think it's sustainable.
Yeah I think that this is what was discovered post Mayday with DGN - meetings just attracted a tiny number of those most involved in Mayday with one exception which I can't go into online.
There is a need for a contact point but possibly something very loose and informal like a monthly assembly out of which initatives could come when required but which otherwise would just function as a talking shop. Getting this together post G8 could be hard as many people will be clearing off for the summer.
on the subject of Dissent replacing DGN what has happened to DGN? is it still kicking? it seems absurd that it could put together the Mayday 04 events and then drop off the map. there was dublin grassrooots in april i spose, but are they up to anything else?
it seems that heads from DGN are involved in a lot of other stuff such as seomra spraoi, dissent, get up stand up etc but does it exist as an entity of itself?
also i'm not really sure about dissent being the new DGN even if DGN truly is off the map which i'm not saying, there doesn't seem to be any buzz within Dissent about continuing on after the G8. i couldn't even venture an opinion as to what i want to see, there is clearly a broad spectrum of opinion within dissent concerning method although we seem to be quite united in terms of analysis. the only way (i think) to keep such a group together is through a grand project which more or less glosses over the differences, without this i don't think it's sustainable.
i agree with joe 100% about the use of having a good mix, if all the various groups formal and otherwise stick to theior own scenes it becomes quite insular. in the few months that dissent has been going i think there's been a really healthy growth of understandinging between some areas.
on to the G8 and the next meta narrative i suppose.