Women’s Liberation exhibition at Peacock WORM

A new exhibition Dreams & Dangerous Ideas: Two decades of the Women’s Liberation Movement in Aberdeen is taking place very soon, opening March 8th, at the Peacock space WORM on the Castlegate. It has been curated by those involved and promises to be fantastic. There will also be 3 webinars. More soon….

https://worm.gallery/showing/dreams-dangerous-ideas

Alternative Freshers’ Fair…2022

It has been so flipping long since I posted that I am going to have to go backwards….before I go forwards again! So a bit of a catch-up here, when in September 2022, those malcontents Aberdeen Social Centre organised a fair for new and returning students. There were 25 activist groups with stalls which is pretty amazing actually. So for posterity if anything, here was the poster and a list of who had a info. stall.

Aberdeen Anarchists, Aberdeen Climate Action, Aberdeen Marxists, Aye Aberdeen, BeCyCle, Black Cat Worker Collective, CND, Commonweal, Conservation Society, Earth & Worms, Extinction Rebellion, Food Not Bombs, Friends of St Fitticks Park, Just Stop Oil, Living Rent, Scottish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, Secret Garden, Socialist Students, Trans Grampian, Vegan Outreach Scotland, Young Greens and 57 North Hacklab. ALSO, at a re-freshers’ fair last month, another 4 groups came into the fold: Amnesty, Fridays for Future, Greenpeace and Socialist Workers Student Society.

New project launches exploring ethnic minority and queer community history in Aberdeen

A project has newly started called PATH or Prejudice and Solidarity Archived Throughout History.

It is a ‘community-led heritage project run by Four Pillars & Grampian Regional Equality Council, exploring ethnic minority and queer community history in Aberdeen and surrounding areas.

Between summer 2022 and spring 2024, the project invites members of these communities to engage and record the difficult but inspiring stories of prejudice and solidarity they have experienced.

In partnership with Aberdeen City Council and the University of Aberdeen, we will be re-discovering existing archival materials that are not part of our current local history narrative.

We hope to capture previously unheard local history through interviews and oral stories, to preserve the rich heritage within these communities and for future generations.

Sharing with the wider community the memories and personal accounts of people from ethnic minority groups and the LGBT+ community, our aim is to inspire new waves of solidarity and equality’.

For more information, please contact:

Louise Henrard, PATH Project Co-ordinator, GREC: lhenrard@grec.co.uk

Jakub Ivanecky, PATH Project Worker, FourPillars: jakub.ivanecky@fourpillarsuk.org

New Project: Prejudice & Solidarity Archived Throughout History (PATH)

Aberdeen People’s Press Exhibition Talks

There are 5 talks accompanying this fantastic exhibition. The 5th talk is on Saturday 25th September from 5-6pm All welcome!

The talks are Zoom webinars but the (free) tickets are bookable through Eventbrite. All of them are here – 

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/peacock-visual-arts-17459321692

Is Another Aberdeen Possible?

Join University of Aberdeen Archivist, Andrew MacGregor, former members of Aberdeen People’s Press alongside Doug Haywood and Fiona Napier from Aberdeen Social Centre to discuss the past, present and future of social movements in the city.

Aberdeen People’s Press Exhibition Talks

There are 5 talks accompanying this fantastic exhibition. The 4th talk is on Tuesday 14th September from 5-6pm by founder member Alan Marshall. All welcome!

The talks are Zoom webinars but the (free) tickets are bookable through Eventbrite. All of them are here – 

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/peacock-visual-arts-17459321692

Aberdeen People’s Press, community newspapers and the end of printers’ monopoly over print

People’s Press was part of a nationwide movement to appropriate not only the means of production of print media (printing), but also the ways in which news priorities were defined and determined on a local level (journalism). Its aim was to circumvent the filters which had for so long allowed the mainstream commercial press to define what was considered to be legitimate news by marginalising all forms of grass-roots dissent. Alan Marshall will talk about the broad technological context of the emergence of the radical press movement and the activities of Aberdeen People’s Press.

Aberdeen People’s Press Exhibition Talks

There are 5 talks accompanying this fantastic exhibition. The 3rd talk is on Thursday (26th August, 5-6pm) by former members Ian Baird and Andy Rigby. All welcome!

The talks are Zoom webinars but the (free) tickets are bookable through Eventbrite. All of them are here – 

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/peacock-visual-arts-17459321692

Diggers & Dreamers, pre-figuring the future

In the 1970s we were dreaming of a different kind of social order, permeated by human values and concerns that privileged the ‘commonweal’ as against the drive to private power and profit. At Aberdeen People’s Press we were ‘digging’, in the sense of working practically, to sow the seeds of that new (utopian) vision.

Turning to the present – we have the sense that the main driver of activism for change is the determination to avert the worst kind of dystopia, the collapse of our common home (climate crisis), and the struggle to reclaim welfare rights and human dignity that has affected so many in the years of austerity.

Andy Rigby and Ian Baird will be in conversation, asking the questions: Has there been a loss of vision? If so, does it matter?

Activist Poster Workshop

As part of the Aberdeen People’s Press exhibition, Peacock Visual Arts, are inviting local activists to work with them to create posters for local campaigns. Please see more information below – and get along!!

Come and make a poster for your campaign for FREE.

Use a combination of Risograph printer & Letterpress to create visually striking posters.

From now until 25th September and by appointment only: Thursday – Saturday

You can produce up to ten posters free of charge, in relation to your community’s campaign. We can accommodate groups of up to 6 people. For more details and for booking please email neil@peacock.studio

New exhibition – CRUDE

Notice of a new exhibition curated by Fertile Ground Arts. CRUDE is an exhibition exploring the complex relationship to crude oil, focussing on the interplays of politics, culture and ecology, through newly commissioned works from artists and writers. The exhibition aims to take a critical lens to oil in local, national and international contexts. The exhibition features scans from ‘Oil Over Troubled Waters: a report and critique of oil developments in north-east Scotland’ published by Aberdeen People’s Press and also scans from ‘Blowout’, the rank and file workers’ newsletter of the Offshore Industry Liaison Committee.

Duration: 27th August – 12th September 2021

Opening night Friday 27th August 6-7.30pm

Opening hours: Sat/Sun: 11-5pm. Wed: 12-5pm. Thurs: 5-8pm. Fri: 12-5pm

Location: Look Again project space, 32 St Andrew Street, Aberdeen

Full details on the website and on social media:

https://www.fertileground.info/

https://www.facebook.com/fertilegroundarts

Aberdeen People’s Press Exhibition Talks

There are 5 talks accompanying this fantastic exhibition. The 2nd talk is on Tuesday (10th August, 5-6pm) by former member Dave Francis. All welcome!

The talks are Zoom webinars but the (free) tickets are bookable through Eventbrite. All of them are here – 

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/peacock-visual-arts-17459321692

One does not compromise with a society in decay

Is a true counter-culture likely to burst fully-formed through the carapace of the dominant culture? If it is not possible to exist entirely unconnected to the dominant culture, the question then arises of the degree of compromise necessary for continued activity and the extent to which the ethos and practices of the counter-culture can be brought to bear on the world in which it operates.Since the 70s a whole apparatus has arisen within the state in Scotland for the promotion of ways of working that would not have been unfamiliar to the counter-culture of that time: social enterprise, community ownership, co-operatives. David Francis will reflect on how much of that is a genuine challenge to a society where concentration of wealth and inequality are growing, and how much an example of the process of ‘recuperation’ foreseen by thinkers like Guy Debord, whereby socially and politically radical ideas are incorporated back into ‘mainstream’ society?

(Aberdeen People’s Press/Boomtown Books shop, King Street, Aberdeen, late 1970s. Image (c)Margaret Lochrie)

Aberdeen Trades Union Council 2020 Annual Report

Aberdeen Trades Union Council annual report for 2020 is now out!

https://aberdeentuc.blogspot.com/p/agm-2014.html

Features reports by Aberdeen & District CND, Aberdeen Social Centre and Aberdeen Scottish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign.

Due to current restrictions, it has just been issued on the web – note: digitised copies are available on the website from 2015 onwards. Older reports are held at the University of Aberdeen and Aberdeen City Local Studies Library.