To celebrate May 1st, Joe’s Garage will present a debate, “Revolt against Oppression? Revolt against Alienation?.” This debate will feature five invited speakers who are active in the following campaigns or have been instrumental in the organizing of the following actions 1) the Schoonmakers Campaign 2) Nederland Bekent Kleur 3) the Occupation of the Iranian Embassy 4) Universitaire Activisten 5) the Squatting Action on the Ringdijk ,which was the first time an undocumented person openly squatted a house and interacted with the press as a squatter.
Doors open at 7 PM, with soup
Debate begins at 7:30, lasting between 1 and 1.5 hours
Dinner will be served after the debate
The purpose of this debate is to explore how the motivations and
conceptualization behind actions impact which types of constituents
participate in political actions, especially direct action. The speakers
will present for 10 minutes each, answering the questions:
1) What was the idea behind the action?
2) How was it organized/how did you publicize it?
3) Who did you expect to participate in the action/who were you targetting?
4) What was the end result?
The title of the debate originates from an ethnography of the alternative globalization movement, Direct Action, by anthropologist David Graeber. Graeber claims that the reason why direct action political groups tend to be homogenous in terms of race, ethnicity, class, and education level, is because the motivations of activists in these groups are to fight their
personal sense of alienation rather than a material condition of oppression. While activists who participate in politics to fight oppression do so through completely different types of groups, which results in segregated political spheres.
This debate will create a space to consider such issues. Please join us to celebrate May 1st!
