OT28 Preview

Our 28th issue will be printed today. We’ll be folding it over the weekend and you can pick up a copy from one of our stockists or read/download it from our website from Monday.

It’s been another busy few months for the OT collective and for the growing movement that our publication aims to reflect. A post-election malaise quickly gave way to a resurgence of interest in the utter necessity to establish networks that can react to, and offer respite from, the worsening conditions of our daily lives. What is most exciting is the apparent collective desire to *continue* to build on existing projects, rather than fall back on tired old re-runs (“the fightback starts now!”). This issue is predominantly focused on the area described by some as “militant care infrastructure” – that is, organising that prioritises mutual aid and building networked communities of struggle.

For our centre spread, members of Housing Action Southwark & Lambeth (HASL) tell the story of their first two years of organising together as a group. We’re told of how they fight against poverty and for the housing that everyone deserves. They share some of the lessons they’ve learned along the way and provide great inspiration for how others can get organised in their own community. Alongside is a separate article shining a spotlight on HASL’s monthly lunch clubs, explaining some historical context for this kind of organising and discussing the thinking behind it – those who eat together, fight together!

We were lucky enough to chat with some new parents from within our organising circles about the various pressures and changes they have faced since their new arrivals. How difficult has it been juggling their ongoing political involvement with the more immediate concerns of raising a child and how has becoming a parents affected their political outlook? “These Babies Need Communism” offers a summary of our discussions.

The Radical Collective Care Project is a research collective looking at groups around the world engaging in political practices centred on social reproduction. In a double-page spread they offer a comprehensive overview of the importance of mutual aid initiatives and self-organisation and their centrality within contemporary struggle.

We’re also delighted to be have been able to work closely with R Movement in developing a spread on how their recent experiences of state education have affected them. A number of people from the group worked together to produce a series of connected pieces which give an analytical overview, and some valuable personal insights, of the role that state schooling plays in contemporary Britain.

In On Circulation Struggles Nick Srnicek calls for strategic reflection on approaches to class struggle in light of the vast changes in capitalism over recent decades, offering a number of recent examples. As industrial production has increasingly left the capitalist heartlands of Europe and North America, proletarian actions aimed at disrupting the circulation of commodities have become more popular. How effective is the tactic of the blockade?

It can be frustrating when movements fail to recognise what does and doesn’t work. In a full page illustration, the OT attempts to signpost just a few of the things we’ve noticed and would like to see more broadly embraced. We also point to some practices and tropes we’d prefer to see the back of. Part observation, part reportage, learning and critique, we hope to share, as best we can, some key learnings – some considerations for an approach to building space & making time.

Copies of OT28 will be distributed at events and within communities throughout the coming months. You can also find us on the shelves of various outlets across the capital, including Housmans, Black Gull Books, Banner Repeater, 56a &Freedom Bookshop. The full list of stockists can be found on the OT Stockists Map on our website.

Follow the OT on Twitter at @OccupiedTimes, Facebook at The Occupied Times, or visit our website at TheOccupiedTimes.org

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.