This meeting took place at Toulouse on the 9th/ 10th april 2006; 12 people interested in the above themes took part
PLAYMOBIL Preparation by the group at Lavaur and elsewhere
Here is a summary of our kitchen conferences about what will take place at Lavaur. This is followed by the proposed introduction .by M and M. In the meantime I have also heard from J who says that our hosts at Frayssinous are highly motivated to welcome the PGA this summer and that they are preparing an international PGA commitee. They await further news from us and hope that we can have a meeting there on or around the 22-23rd April. I will send this information onto the STAMP list unless there is an objection. Kisses and iris in bud. L!
SUMMARY
Well, we've given ourselves until the 25th to see if there is enough motivation to set this up :
- Castres (L goes on the 22nd)
- Martre ( G is there)
- Frayssinous ( J very motivated)
- Villemur
- Paris (N will ask her crew)
« WE » consists of :
- m
- c
- g
- j
- L
- d
Introduction
A summer meeting based on the subject of children and the struggle against industrial society
Within the framework of the PGA network, of which the european conference will take place in France from the 19th August until the 4th September 2006, it has been decided to hold the first week in 4 or 5 geographical locations (from the 19th to the 30th of August). Each place will have between 50 and 150 people (depending on capacity). One group has decided to explore two particular subjects: children and the struggle against the industrial society. This meeting was originally supposed to take place at Lavaur, in the Tarn region (30 km from Toulouse), but this appears unlikely due to a lack of a specific host location. However around 10 people still want to pursue these themes ideally in the Tarn where contacts have already been made, but also elsewhere as long as its in the countryside. It seems essential to match these particular themes with host locations who have already experienced these issues in reality.
Some of these people are available in July/August to go in advance to the host location, prepare the site (building toilets, sleeping areas, meeting areas) and to prepare practical workshops which would take place simultaneously with the meetings (gardening, construction).
As summer is nearing, we must find a place by the 30th of April at the latest...
Subjects close to our heart...
Children, education, ageism et social control
- domination by adults over children/ageism/parenthood/ children's self-organisation
- What type of childhood in socially deprived areas ?
- education/knowledge and skill sharing re: activities for children, education, home schooling, etc.
Suggestions to contact people within organisations such as « Les Enfants D'abord » (Castres) (a home educating assocation), alternative schools, etc.
- workshops ect with local teenagers and children (activities/games/discussions and other projects which interest them)
- make a link with protests surrounding CPE (recent French law making it easier to sack people) which particularly affects young people.
- young offenders and prison, especially around Lavaur where a young offenders institute is being built. The policy of multiple imprisonment (schools, prisons, medecines (ritalin?), etc, social control applied to children and families [notably in connection with lINSERM, the contract of parental responsibility the link to Benisti)).
The idea is not just to have discussions between adult activists about children and our relations with them. The project will also create spaces with and for children during these meetings, to integrate these themes with daily practicalities and the organisation of these meetings themselves. Of course, this invitation is not just limited to 'professionals in adult/child relations (teachers, play workers and parents) but to all as the subject of childhood touches everyone ( after all, everyone has been a child).
The struggle against industrial society
- industrial farming/agricultural worker struggles/fight to make a living, linked to a refusal of 'normality', of micro-chipping, of difficulties linked to hidden or illegal practises : how can countryside ways which are anti-industrial revolution and anti-capitalist be pursued, or reinvented (on a concrete level)?
- integration of anti-industrial revolution practises in daily life, our relation to technology (computers, phones ect), the changing environment (city and countryside, urban life, rhythms of life).
- protest strategies when faced with techno-industry and that world. What are our objectives, our methods of action, our targets ? Our relations with "people's movements", with 'conventional' media ?
- industrial society, technology et feminism/gender questions
- question the current oppositions between « authentic/artificial », « life/death », and notions of « natural », of « truth », etc.
Latest news on ongoing protests (biometry in the paris area, micro-chipping of animals in the south-west, a silicone valley located in the Alps), and notably the meetings planned in Grenoble around the 1st of June; all of this will undoubtedly inspire new thoughts on protest strategies as well as highlighting the emergence of other values and practises, moving away (where possible) from industrial society limitations.
Practical activities
project building wooden framed yurts with hand tools (no power tools)
Idea of alternating discussions, skill sharing and practical projects during the length of the conference. These on site projects depend on local need ( the infrastructure of the site).