Movements (Nov '18): New Monthly Listings So You Can Change The World
Welcome to the first instalment of 'Movements'.
Rather than tell you to get out and get active in making the world a better place, each month I'll pull together events, meetings and actions to make it so easy to get involved that you feel guilty about not doing so.
Compiling these for the first time has presented a number of questions. What constitutes social change? What formats actually change anything? How can the listings be unbiased? If you punch a Nazi in the face, does that make you a Nazi too?
If you have any complaints please keep them to yourself, organise something better, send it to me and I'll list it.
I would need a page as long as the Brexit negotiations to fit every happening here, but this month I want to point you in the direction of Tinkers Lane Protectors Camp, just outside Sheffield. Second stage test drilling, leading to fracking, is due to start at the site on 12 November. Join their Facebook Group to see how you can help in the next couple of weeks.
If you're hungry for more, Alt-Sheff has hundreds of listings and organisations.
Eleanor Holmshaw
Sisterhood Social: Monthly Gathering 01
Thu 8 Nov | 7:30-11pm | The Hide, S3 7AA
Sisterhood Social create opportunities for anyone who identifies as female to come together to lift each other up and cheer each other on. This launch event includes food, drinks, a dancefloor and six female speakers responding to a theme. Profits raised go towards taking the project into educational environments, promoting the wellbeing of young women.
Fri 9 Nov | 8pm-7am | 92 Burton Road, S3 8DA
Swap your bed for a sleeping bag and cold hard floor, and tap up your Nan to raise money for Roundabout. They provide shelter, support and life skills to young people in Sheffield, aiming to end youth homelessness. They're setting goals of £150 sponsorship, which will buy a Home Starter Pack for a young person in a new home.
Reclaim The Power National Gathering
Sat 10 - Sun 11 Nov | 10:30am-5pm | Venue TBA
Reclaim The Power is a national direct action network who've been connecting green groups to fight against fossil fuels and climate catastrophe for the past six years. This year they are honouring Sheffield as host city of their National Gathering - unsurprising, as the above mentioned drills rumble ever closer. The gathering will involve strategising for the upcoming direct actions.
Welcome to the Women's Equality Party
Tue 13 Nov | 7-9pm | Union St, S1 2JP
Not sure what the Women's Equality Party is all about? They're hosting a Welcome Meeting, so you can go along and find out about how they are making change happen in Sheffield, and how you can help. Contact through Facebook for more info. Regular branch meetings at the same time and place on 26 November and 10 December.
National Unity Demonstration Against Fascism & Racism
Sat 17 Nov | 12pm | London
There are coaches from The Hubs (S1 2QQ) leaving at 8am, organised by Stand Up to Racism Sheffield. 8am is early, but I don't know about you, I always get serious FOMO about marches in London. Wear your best masks, take your biggest banners and show 'em Sheffield can shout too.
Screening of 'A Inceput Ploaia' and Q&A with Michele Lancione
Thu 22 Nov | 6-11pm | Cafe+ RED HAUS BOOKS
Red Haus is a new independent bookshop on Abbeydale Road. Alongside the range of radical books they serve varieties of kimchi, which I have never tried because it's cabbage stuffed in a hole in the ground. Apparently it's actually very nice. Lancione is the director of the film, which is about the forced evictions happening to marginalised communities in Bucharest.
Fri 23 Nov | 7-10pm | University Arms
Local poet Rachel Bower, founder of Verse Matters, will be headlining at this fundraiser for South Yorkshire Refugee Law and Justice, a volunteer-run charity supporting asylum seekers through their claim process. Organised by Sheffield Labour Students and the Broomhill & Sharrow Vale Labour Party, just £2 suggested donation and more info on the Facebook.
Anonymous For The Voiceless: Cube of Truth
Sat 24 Nov | 12-3pm | The Moor
Anonymous, with added videos of pigs covered in faeces being strung up and dropped in a mincer. Gnarly. Cube of Truth is a peaceful, static demonstration aimed at triggering public curiosity and interest through footage and conversation. Anonymous For The Voiceless is an animal rights organisation that specialises in street activism. To get involved go to Facebook group.
Common Thread Sheffield Clothes Exchange
Sat 24 Nov | 1-4pm | Union St, S1 2JP
Bring a bag of clean clothes and take an even bigger bag away - or don't bring a bag, but you'll certainly need to next time. CT Clothes Exchange encourages sustainable wardrobes, giving you the option not to inflict the damage fast fashion causes to our planet and the humans on it, whilst still looking on fleek. More details and volunteering sessions on Facebook.
Sheffield Transformative Justice Learning Group
Sat 24 Nov | 2-4pm | Union St, S1 2JP
A new group meeting monthly, the STJLG discuss accountability, transformative justice and how to make it concrete in local spaces and groups. The idea is that co-created approaches to responding when harmful acts occur empower everybody and makes our communities safer, inspired by the practices of people of colour and indigenous communities in the US.
