On
Saturday 24th November, from 3 until 6pm in the Coffee Lounge of
Manvers Street Baptist Church in Bath (a minute's walk from Bath Spa
train station), the Black And Red Federation (BARF) will be organising a
discussion on anarchism, and invite members of the public to come
along and take part. The group feels that recent government policy
and business lobbyists have made the UK a better place for
millionaires and rightwing politicians, but an increasingly uncertain
and unhealthy place for everyone else.
Anarchism
has received a bad press ever since its birth 219 years ago, with
anarchists forced into stereotypes of either violent thugs or
sandal-footed hippies - caricatures repeated by both the media and
political establishment on one side, but also by self-proclaimed
anarchists on the other. But many anarchists see it differently: the
philosophy has come a long way since its roots amongst the Taoists of
ancient China and the Christian heretic Anabaptists of 16th
Century Europe, promoting mutual respect, equality and rationality,
and opposing oppression wherever it appears. Indeed, anarchism had
become a mass movement of hundreds of thousands of everyday people
fighting for and winning freedom in 1920s Ukraine and 1930s Spain,
however briefly. Far from embracing destruction and chaos, anarchists
say that 'Anarchism is Order'!
In
Bath on the Saturday, a handful of local speakers will make short
presentations on the ideas and history of this important but
controversial political philosophy, before breaking down into longer
group sessions where all present are invited to discuss and offer
their two cents. The group will ask whether, in this current climate
of biting austerity and growing global unrest, anarchists and their
ideas have any role to play?
Entry
is free, food and hot drinks will be available, as will stalls of
literature, and all are welcome to come along and join them on the
day!
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