Radical Sunday School: Nationalism and Invented Traditions

Sunday December 8, 2024, Radical Sunday School: Nationalism and Invented Traditions. From 18:00 till 20:00.Coming just in time for the end of Sinterklaas, Radical Sunday School invites you to join us as we learn a bit about invented traditions, and the way they shape how we look at ourselves and our communities. We’ll be sitting down to chat with a scholar of nationalism about not only the silly aspects of ridiculous holidays and made-up cuisine, but also the darker connections between these nationalist projects and the recent rise of the far right in Western politics. Join us this Sunday as we learn about the stories we tell ourselves, the myth of “tradition”, and the joys of cultural diversity!

Radical Sunday School
radicalsundayschool [at] riseup [dot] net
https://radar.squat.net/en/amsterdam/radical-sunday-school
https://radicalsundayschool.noblogs.org/

Radical Sunday School: Autonomy, Authority, Anarchism, and Abuse: What does (un)freedom feel like?

Sunday November 24, 2024, Radical Sunday School: Autonomy, Authority, Anarchism, and Abuse: What does (un)freedom feel like? From 18:00 till 20:00.What does it feel like to be controlled? Why would a person seemingly “let” someone else, or an entire group of people, make decisions for them?

In this week’s session of Radical Sunday School, we’re going to talk about a difficult topic: controlling relationships. So-called “partner abuse”, “high-control groups” (aka cults), and even totalitarian states are all examples of a dangerous kind of social control that is unfortunately common in our world. We’ll discuss some of the common signs of this kind of abuse, the psychology that seems to be behind it, and the ways that anarchist principles might help us fight against it. As we learn together about what’s been called “the killing of the self”, we’ll try to support each other with insights from diverse anarchists and antifascists, philosophers and therapists. Most importantly, we want to hear from anyone who has ever lived through an experience like this: how have you learned to get away from this kind of social control, and how can we help each other to live free?

Radical Sunday School
radicalsundayschool [at] riseup [dot] net
https://radar.squat.net/en/amsterdam/radical-sunday-school
https://radicalsundayschool.noblogs.org/

Radical Sunday School, Anarchism 101: Everything you’ve always wanted to know about anti-authoritarian socialism (but were too afraid to ask)

Sunday November 17, 2024, Radical Sunday School, Anarchism 101: Everything you’ve always wanted to know about anti-authoritarian socialism (but were too afraid to ask) . From 18:00 till 20:00.Anarchism comes in as many varieties as there are and have been anarchists. Yet, we do have some concepts in common, even if not all of us do use the same words. – P.S.

Have you been hearing about anarchism in the news, but you don’t know where to start? Curious about the “circle-A” or the cool red-and-black aesthetic? Maybe you’ve seen some famous names, but don’t feel like worshipping some old dead white guy? Well, lucky for you, Radical Sunday School is here to help. In this week’s session, we’ll talk with an experienced comrade about some of the basic ideas of anarchism and try to tease out what some of this “libertarian socialism” is all about. We’ll learn about things like:

– Authority and hierarchy
– Capitalism and the state
– Freedom and autonomy
– Mutual aid and free association
– Federation and decentralization

Whether you’re a seasoned revolutionary, a complete newbie, or just a little anarcho-curious, we’re happy to have you as we learn together about our favorite political practice!

Radical Sunday School
radicalsundayschool [at] riseup [dot] net
https://radar.squat.net/en/amsterdam/radical-sunday-school
https://radicalsundayschool.noblogs.org/

Radical Sunday School: Corruption 101, why you should have friends

Sunday November 10, 2024, Radical Sunday School: Corruption 101, why you should have friends. From 18:00 till 20:00.Growing up in Hungary during the 2010s, I frequently heard it from many liberal adults and newspapers, that one of the most important problems of our country is the rampant corruption by our conservative government. The argument was the following: if only our political elite wouldn’t steal our or the EU’s taxpayers’ money, the standard of living would increase drastically. There was also often a flipside to that, namely that one of the main reasons why Western European countries have such a high standard of living is because their politicians don’t steal their taxpayers’ money, and their citizens always follow the rules, and do not try to find loopholes, unlike us, Hungarians. Even in these few statements, there’s a lot to unpack.
However, during the past two years that I spent in the Netherlands, I have never heard anyone talk about corruption in any context. This made me wonder: is there really no conversation about corruption here?

Radical Sunday School
radicalsundayschool [at] riseup [dot] net
https://radar.squat.net/en/amsterdam/radical-sunday-school
https://radicalsundayschool.noblogs.org/

Radical Sunday School: Open Session: What is Radical Sunday School?

Sunday November 3rd, 2024, Radical Sunday School: Open Session: What is Radical Sunday School? From 18:00 till 20:00.In this week’s session of Radical Sunday School, we’ll be opening up the conversation to people who’ve never been to RSS before! (And of course, we’d love to see familiar faces as well 🙂 ) In the first of what we hope to be a series of open session, we’d like to include everyone in the kinds of discussions we’ve been having within our collective. For example:

– What exactly is the difference between a “brave” and a “safer” space? What does that mean in a learning environment?
– How do we attract new people to our sessions?
– What exactly are our perspectives on mainstream education and academia?

We’d love anyone who’s ever been curious about what radical education can look like to stop by for a more laid-back, joyful reflection on these kinds of ideas, and whatever else you want to know!

Radical Sunday School
radicalsundayschool [at] riseup [dot] net
https://radar.squat.net/en/amsterdam/radical-sunday-school
https://radicalsundayschool.noblogs.org/

Radical Sunday School: Fuck this Job! Taking Power Back at Work

Sunday October 20, 2024, Radical Sunday School: Fuck this Job! Taking Power Back at Work. From 18:00 till 20:00.What would you do if your boss started stealing your pay? What if you were getting pressured to work longer than you’re getting paid for? Would you complain? Would you quit? Under capitalism, we all have to work, and in the workplace, bosses and managers get to act like little kings. We don’t get a vote in the places we live 8 (or often more) hours a day. Alone, we have no power to stop this. But what if we could work together to fight back?

In this week’s session of Radical Sunday School, we’ll be sharing horror stories about work and complaining about our bosses, but we’ll also be talking with people who have taken the fight to their bosses. We’ll hear from veterans of the war against capitalism, and find out what the front lines look like: collective actions, walk-outs, escalation tactics, and large scale strikes!

Whether you work at a university, a factory, a restaurant, or an office building, we can all learn skills together to help us fight labor exploitation and start to take control of our own lives. Let’s get together to make sure that Mondays don’t have to be the worst day of the week anymore!

Radical Sunday School
radicalsundayschool [at] riseup [dot] net
https://radar.squat.net/en/amsterdam/radical-sunday-school
https://radicalsundayschool.noblogs.org/

Radical Sunday School: What’s wrong with academia?

Sunday October 13, 2024, Radical Sunday School: What’s wrong with academia? From 18:00 till 20:00.From its very beginnings, Radical Sunday School defined itself as a collective that is highly critical of the currently existing formal education systems and aimed to offer and imagine alternatives as best as we could. Most of us in the collective have a lot of different personal experiences with formal education as students and we also read others’ thoughts on this topic who had more time and resources to form their opinions. However, we have significantly less knowledge about how the academia looks like from teachers’ and researchers’ points of view. So, tonight, we will have the opportunity to listen to and ask a researcher and lecturer at the UvA, Dirk Damsma, who studies and teaches about topics in the philosophy of science while being critical of the institution where he works. How can you climb up the steps of the academic ladder? And is that even worth it? Is working as an academic just like any other job? Whether you think universities should be burned to the ground or you still want to believe at least a little bit that the promises of the academia are not complete lies, join us for the discussion!

Radical Sunday School
radicalsundayschool [at] riseup [dot] net
https://radar.squat.net/en/amsterdam/radical-sunday-school
https://radicalsundayschool.noblogs.org/

Radical Sunday School: Reclaim the Land! – Commons and Private Ownership

Sunday October 6, 2024, Radical Sunday School: Reclaim the Land! – Commons and Private Ownership. From 18:00 till 20:00.Approximately 60% of the forests in the European Union are privately owned. In England, you only have a right of access to 8% of the land, and uncontested rights to 3% of the rivers.

For decades, people are made to feel unwelcome to roam the world freely – the right to access nature is by no means given to everyone unconditionally . At the same time, we are made to believe that only privately owned/maintained land and resources can function in a long run. Collective ownership is bound to result in chaos and inequality, they say. But the real inequality starts right there, at every fence keeping us from accessing a meadow, a forest, a stream.

In this session, we will talk about access to nature and the right to roam as well as about the tragedy of the commons in fact communal use of resources has been working amazingly well for centuries in locally organised small-scale collectives all over the world.

We will also brainstorm what we can do to reclaim our right of access to land in a way that values and protects nature (how about some more trespassing, wildcamping, forest occupations?). Also, we will think and talk about how to fight private ownership and implement collectively organised commons in our lives.

Radical Sunday School
radicalsundayschool [at] riseup [dot] net
https://radar.squat.net/en/amsterdam/radical-sunday-school
https://radicalsundayschool.noblogs.org/