New folk make up half the organising team for this year’s Peace News Summer Camp, bringing new energy and new ideas. We put on the camp, which has been going since 2009, to give grassroots activists a chance to come together and recharge batteries while sharing experiences, ideas and strategies – in a family-friendly, off-grid, low-impact way.
Summer Camp is designed to encourage the things that make for a better society: friendliness, connection and community; responsibility, freedom and self-government.
“Thank you for organising and creating a lovely village.”
Our theme this summer is ‘On common ground – bringing our movements together’. The organising group is focusing on two movements in particular, with the Trident replacement decision coming up in 2016 and climate negotiations coming to a head in Paris this December.
The biggest and most exciting component of the camp will be a whole-camp, whole-day workshop called ‘Climate not Trident – strategies for the radical climate and the radical peace movements’.
This event (on Saturday 1 August) will be inspired by the whole-camp, whole-day workshop on ‘Making nonviolent revolution’ run by George Lakey and Kathryn Tulip in 2012.
That nonviolent revolution session was also held at the beautiful Crabapple Community near Shrewsbury which we are returning to this year. It’s one of the best-loved venues we’ve been in, with gorgeous views, great walks, and very fine compost toilets.
“I always love how un-cliquey it is.”
We will have: workshops and discussions; practical skills sessions; delicious vegan food cooked by Veggies; films; fun; DIY entertainment; a bar; a campfire; and great activities and facilities for children.
We’ll also have entertainment from amazing singer-songwriter Robb Johnson. Pilar Lopez will sing songs of the Spanish Civil War.
Practicalities
The camp costs £20–£100 depending on income. You can pay by cheque, online or by phone (020 7278 3344).
Food (three meals a day and drinks) costs £6–£12 a day for over-14s, depending on income. (Food for under-14s is cooked and served in the Children’s Space – the cost is negotiated with parents.) This year, we are only selling food tickets at the camp itself. You can buy tickets for individual meals, or you can self-cater.
“Being here has been like a fortnight in the Maldives – spiritually!”
To guarantee lunch or supper, you need to buy (or get someone at camp to buy) a food ticket at least two hours before the first meal you want to eat.
Workhops include:
- Climate not Trident – Strategies for the Radical Climate and the Radical Peace Movements
- Towards Collective Liberation – An Anti-oppression Workshop
- Challenging Islamophobia after the Paris Attacks
- Chomsky and Revolution
- ‘Yes!’ – Sharing Stories of Campaigning Success
- Accountancy for Anarchists
- Radical Creativity – Creative Practitioners for Social Change
- Zylum – New Online Tools for Campaigners
- Cake-making
- Drawing
- Singing
- Better Meetings through Fantastic Facilitation
- Better Decisions through Creative Consensus
- Nonviolent Direct Action for Beginners
- Money, Money, Money – How to Apply for Grants
- Children in Charge – Libertarian Education Today
- In It to Win It – Strategy for Activists
- Fine-Tuning Your Tweets – Social Media Campaigning