Activism and

I was really frightened of going to prison. I’d had a really bad experience of being in a boys-only boarding school, and I thought prison would be like that except worse.

To be honest, I think quite a lot of it was classism. Being a middle-class person from a privileged background, the thing that I thought would be ‘worse’ was that it would be a working-class men-only environment.

I don’t know whether that meant I was frightened of it being violent (my upper-middle-…

It’s not really something I ever think about. I’ve never done a women-only action, but I’ve been involved in a few women-only spaces, and that’s been an interesting experience. They’ve generally involved women plus something else though, for example, spaces set up for migrant women.

I do quite a lot of work in very male-dominated groups, so I really feel the difference when I’m in a women-only space. That said, it’s not something I feel particularly strongly about, or that I need or…

Well, I’ve had my bedroom used as an office, and I’ve used my bedroom as an office. I’ve also used an office as my bedroom. I’ve also had an office which was previously the archive room for another organisation before I used it. It was small and cramped. I was there six years, maybe. I look back on it and I feel... I’m glad I’m not still there! There were lots of good points about it, but it was quite isolating. It probably fed into my strain of messiness.

I proposed a definition of…

I suppose for me as a Christian activist Christmas is a particularly important time of the year. After all, the Christmas story focuses on the birth of a baby who was born into poverty, and whose parents were fleeing a repressive regime - lots of resonance there with stuff I'm concerned with.

When I first began to connect my activism with my faith, it gave Advent and Christmas a new meaning. Itís now a time when I take stock and really think about the meaning of the season.

I…

The problem was, as the head teacher explained in his letter, that I had convictions for criminal damage and therefore was not a suitable person to be working in a school. The details of the matter – that I had told the school about my criminal record months ago and that my most recent conviction was over twelve years ago – were of no interest to him. The fact that I’m a governor at another school also left him unimpressed.

He had never met me but had formed this impression of me as…

Being evicted from your home leaves deep scars and although there may be much support, sometimes you can get done-over by so-called supporters.

I’m not sayng that is happening at Dale Farm, but beware of being taken advantage of by people with their own agendas. People who haven’t got an investment in, and a long attachment to, the disputed territory probably don’t realise the effect on the besiged residents. It makes one wary and shaken, lose confidence.

Then there was our…

I was about 24 at the time, and I was there with my small son. The diversity of the women was incredible. For some women Greenham gave them an alternative to our society, it gave a community. Many women came back to Greenham because of the benefits of women living together in co-operation. Despite the hardships that life was preferable. There was concern for each other and support. People got together on an open piece of land, not designed for living on. How they improved their lives,…

I went to Egypt the other week, which was activism and a holiday combined. I went to the Cairo Conference, a post-revolution event organised by the Socialist Renewal current, with various leftist groups in Egypt. So there was activism and building links with people involved in the revolution, and also a holiday!

Last summer, I went to Palestine and travelled around the West Bank. We made the decision not to stay anywhere in Israel. Unfortunately, we did have to fly into Tel Aviv. We…

In Charing Cross Road in London in the 1950s, there used to be an elderly woman selling Peace News who stood on the pavement saying: [uses frail voice] “Pacifist paper. Pacifist paper.” And it put me off! Although I was interested in the peace movement and remember going to a big anti-bomb meeting in Hornsey town hall addressed by Alex Comfort among others, before CND was formed, to buy the paper seemed uncool, although I wouldn’t have used the term then. Of course I regret it now!
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We have the EDL [right-wing English Defence League] coming to a nearby town this weekend and I’m really torn about going to the counter-demonstration because we came very unstuck campaigning against the BNP in the elections. My young son and I managed to “intimidate” the BNP candidate into not attending the hustings at the local town hall, which was great, and very thrilling. Then we went home to our little council house on our own, and they got their own back. Stuff thrown at the door,…

This topic of having to define yourself is something that’s not just worth exploring but something necessary for us to explore. In a way the census is a blessing because it forces us to have conversations that otherwise get pushed to the back of the cupboard.
Conversations around: “What is this thing called identity?” Personally, this is something I’ve found extremely debilitating, the fact that you have to choose between identities. It’s debilitating in activist movements, even in…

Strongest experience of women’s solidarity? God, I probably think of doing stuff in Ireland. I was involved in Women in Ireland for a really long time. It wouldn’t have been about women’s issues, women’s rights. It was to do with the British occupation of Ireland, British soldiers on the streets.
We would go and stay in people’s houses in a very working- class area of West Belfast and then we’d all go on the International Women’s Day marches outside the prisons where there were women…

PN has permission to quote long-term anarchist organiser Ian Bone, a key figure in Class War in the 1980s: “I’ve never knowingly met a police spy, but we had loads of journalists trying to infiltrate Class War. They stood out a mile. The journalist would always be the first to buy a round.”

A letter appeared in the Guardian in January from a Philip Foxe: “The late Tony Cliff, leading light of the SWP, had a clear position on undercover police infiltration. He used to say: ‘It’s…

As it is the season of New Year Resolutions, we asked some people around the movements about their experiences of trying to change themselves, live more in accord with their values, or become better activists.

Wow. I’m just trying to think. Lately I’ve been developing…. I’m a complete newcomer, I’m more of a spectator at things, rather than taking an active role in things. I kind of see things in a critical eye. I don’t feel I have a place yet in society, well I do, but I’m…

I don’t like the term unemployment because it is negative and stigmatising. Deliberately choosing not to be in conventional employment is a liberating choice, but there is not really a term for it.
The difficulty about not having a conventional job has been about having self-discipline with regards to paid work. Choosing to be in a state of low employment is about valuing time. I wouldn’t have been able to do Climate Camp or Bicycology if I hadn’t withdrawn from conventional…