AUT: LIBERTY HALL in Liverpool

["dave graham" <davgraham@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have promised to write something about the Hall so here it is:-


. . . . .

Liberty Hall : The Ethos, purposes and practices of Liberty Hall as it
developed in 1998

Background: Liberty Hall originates from Dublin, being the headquarters
of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union, during the great
Dublin lock-out of 1913. Peter Larkin, brother of James, the Liverpool
syndicalist and union agitator, described the hall as a place where,

	?any man, woman and child can come in and say what they please and get
every courtesy. There is no question of leaders and led. Everyone  is
treated as if they are our own.?

This tradition was consequently adopted in many countries. In Liverpool
such a hall existed during the 70s but fell into ?disrepair? in the 80s.

Revival time: How did Liberty Hall reappear ? Partly through the efforts
of local workers for the Workers Educational Association [WEA] and also
through the Liverpool Dockers dispute [1995 -98] which brought people
from diverse backgrounds together. It is possible also that a number of
general factors may have indirectly helped to influence its
re-appearance. These include: the decline in established party politics,
increasing single issue campaigns, a growing feeling of alienation,
greater interest in building informal links and networks, more
realisation of how issues are inter-related and the breaking down of old
ideological barriers.

Through the WEA a course was established to look at the ethos,
principles and organisation of the hall. From the beginning these
meetings recognised the importance of not elaborating too many ideas of
how the hall should be run. Initial ?principles? were laid down as
follows:

Principles and Objectives

To provide a build a forum of wide ranging discussion. Speakers would be
invited to present their views to an audience who have the opportunity
to debate and discuss these ideas.

Topics: everything will be democratically decided upon. To include
cultural issues and to provide cultural entertainment, an atmosphere to
stimulate debate and discussion. Debates to encourage critical thought
and awareness, rising above every day existence, arriving at conclusions
through the clash of ideas, the basis of human development;

What is the incentive ? With politics becoming mainstream, other views
/voices  are excluded, monopolisation of the media means we need
alternative news and views.

Style of debate & discussion: friendly, respectful atmosphere, avoiding
sterile polemics, with respect for other peoples? points of view.
Avoidance of dogmatic interpretation, nothing is finalised or decided.
The tone - set from the beginning, has allowed a friendly, unthreatening
atmosphere to develop. Not allowed is sexist, racist, homophobic
language, lengthy diatribes or unrespectful remarks.

What is encouraged however, is an atmosphere of debate, encouragement of
listening, questioning and especially - humour.

Venue: the hall meets in different locations and moves around whenever
that is possible, in order that it does not become a static affair.
Provision is made for disabled access. The regular meeting time is on
the last Sunday night of the month, though in winter the night may vary.

Still up for discussion:

Are there any boundaries to Liberty Hall ?

The essence is that it should be a free radical space for debate,
discussion and collective enjoyment. Collectively our individuality can
be expressed and it is accepted that all established ideas and
assumptions should be questioned and critically examined.

In the above sense the hall does not have to be restricted to Sunday
night meetings but could become a potential ?street? movement.

We should try to think of Liberty Hall as also being a virtual space. So
there could be rooms for political discussion, Philosophy Cafe, science,
film and other discussion groups and projects. In addition there could
be electronic rooms and spaces on the web and public spaces.

We should think about the transformation of the city - the driving out
of working class traditions and the colonisation of yuppie housing
projects, whilst at the same time homelessness continues to increase.

A variety of other topics could also be included: tenant control, food,
environmental policy, the impact of new information communication
technologies, surveillance, public institutions. Liberty Hall through
its talks and discussions could provide a framework out of which other
projects might develop. For instance we could put in place the building
blocks for a bottom-up radical history of Liverpool, using the web for
contributions/participation. . . . .


. . . . .


As part of this ongoing discussion we have agreed a sort of ?core
programme? for the next 12 months. You will see that the ideas are quite
varied and may even be contradictory - they reflect the needs and
aspirations of those people who come along to our regular planning
meetings. We feel that this is quite natural and beyond certain general
points of agreement which have already been outlined we have quite
deliberately refrained from writing any programmatic statement or a
?where we stand? document. The success of Liberty Hall will be measured
in practical ways  - if it can succeed in creating the spaces we need,
if it can help in getting projects off the ground and so on.

In outlining what we propose, I will give some background information -
but inevitably since I know and am involved in some but not others, this
information may be helpful or not. It should give people a feel for the
variety of views that make up the ?organising committee? although this
is not a permanently constituted body nor is it made up of the same
people at every meeting.


. . . .

Proposed Diary - all events scheduled to take place on the last Sunday
of the month.

February: ?Reclaim the Game:? - well it wouldn?t be Liverpool if we
didn?t talk about football.

What?s happening to ?our? game ? Can the clubs continue to take the kind
of die hard working class loyalty of the fans for granted when a
Saturday afternoon watching a game is going to cost maybe the equivalent
of 1 or 2 days wages ? Can the TV companies really rely on getting
enough people to pay to allow the game to continue as it is ? What?s
changing on the terraces ?

We hope to get players, managers and the like to say what they really
think - and of course we?ll get a shout as well.

March: ?Beyond the Fragments? - in the late 70s /early 80s Hilary
Wainwright [now editor of Red Pepper] and Sheila Rowbotham [among
others] attempted to try and work out a way forward for radical
politics. What has happened ? Even for those who may not have been or
are still not sympathetic to the project, time to catch up, re-assess ?
Time to think critically. We?ve invited them to think out loud.

People who just want to lecture us or who have the answers already
worked out should not bother coming.

April: Northern Soul ? We have already had a birthday party for John
Lennon ? ?working class hero? - some thought he was, others argued
against. Whilst we enjoyed ourselves some serious points were made about
culture and how it is used, were made. In the late 60s many white
working class kids in the UK strongly identified with black soul music,
its outlook and attitudes. Black bands made up of GIs toured the UK and
Europe at the same time as the Civil Rights movement was active in the
USA [and in Northern Ireland].

These kids are probably grandparents now. What was the effect, how does
music express our hopes and desires ? This one will probably run and
run.


May: We?re going to try and create a Cyber Cafe combined with a street
party and street theatre. Its also a celebration of 25 years of the
opening of ?News from Nowhere? which is out local radical bookshop. May
day is also of course meant to be our day - but it has been marked by a
tired social democratic trudge round past landmarks. We would like to
something more lively but - no more details as yet .

June: is obviously the month of the anti-MAI campaign which we hope to
contribute to, but our activity at the end of the month concentrates on
a local story. We would like to invite Margaret Simey for a sort of
?Desert Island Discs? evening. Margaret Simey is now an old lady, coming
from an old fashioned radical tradition which has almost certainly died
out in this country today. She nevertheless challenged the policy and
methods of the late unlamented Ken Oxford, former Chief Constable at a
time when the police in this city were a law unto themselves.

Of course, many of us believe that very little has changed since the
time of the Toxteth riots [except perhaps the police have learned more
than we have] - a point which might come out if we can take up her idea
of some kind of citizen inquiry into the police.

July: Northern Ireland [well it is the marching season]. At one of the
union conferences last Autumn there was a fringe meeting which took the
form of a debate between working class Protestant and Republican
speakers. By all account it was a fascinating discussion, which we would
like to see continue. Providing the participants are still willing, we
would like to see how far this can go.

August: We?d like to have ?our day out?, a picnic with entertainment and
the like in the day time. Of course, this is England and the weather . .
. . .

September: Zapatistas - some of us would like to make their ideas and
approach more widely known. The dockers were invited to the second
Encuentro, but gave it a miss - perhaps they, like us, did not know
enough the project. Many people in Liverpool are still caught up in
ideas like national liberation and anti-imperialism, which we presume
the Zapatistas are beginning to subvert . . . .

October: Whiners and Whingers festival. Liverpool and its inhabitants,
as a result of a series of grievances, problems, events and expressions
have been labelled as the centre of whingeing, moaning and excessive
grief by the popular media. I quote from what is proposed,

   ?The title of the event[s] is deliberately ironic, but we want to
look at real and disturbing issues and offer hope, extend discussion,
celebrate and raise funding for deserving causes. This is being run over
5 days, with seminars exploring issues around whinges in afternoon and
entertainment in the evenings.

The afternoon meetings will be given by the likes of the dockers,
Hillsborough Support Group, MV Derbyshire families, Stephen Lawrence
Support Group, Bloody Sunday, Satpal Ram, Asbestosis Support Group,
Rigs, Campaigns Against Domestic Violence, Justice Campaign . . . . this
is NOT a complete or final list, who will discuss the issues that have
arisen as a result of their tragedies, problems and the roles played by
the forces of the law, judiciary and their treatment by the media.
Members of other groups, invited guests, interested parties and members
of the public will be invited  or asked to attend. The day-time events
will take place in John Moores University hosted by the School of Media,
Critical and Creative Arts and the Criminal Justice route.

It is hoped these sessions and other parts of the festival will gain the
support/sponsorship of media publications, TV production companies and
or network. Invited guests include: Noam Chomsky, Michael Mansfield,
John Pilger, Irvine Welsh, James Kelman, Jimmy McGovern, Ken Loach and
others.

The object would be for some formulation to emerge which could be seen
to link these groups and their work. Through the discussions the
possibility may arise of a coming together of common issues such as
justice and media coverage. . . . .  ?

Now not all of this is can be handled by Liberty Hall - but, in the
evening entertainment sessions we hope perhaps to extend the
discussions. Certainly the role of John Moores University or local TV
companies is by no means unproblematical in creating some of the
problems that we currently face. John Moores for instance is now a major
land and property owner in the city. Liberty Hall needs to extend the
discussion, create the space for a REAL critique to emerge.

November: Film Night. Since the old Bluecoat Film Club closed down we
have lacked a facility in the city where films other than those on major
release can be shown. One major cinema has just closed down and a
multiplex has opened in the suburbs but . . . . . Ken Loach?s films for
instance sneak into the city for one or two showings and are gone before
most people know about it. Perhaps we can alter this situation ?

December: Fuck the Millennium.  Well with electricians on the Jubilee
line doing their best to screw Bechtel Corp because they have a deadline
they cannot miss - what else could we say ?

. . . .

So there you have it. Apologies for this long post, but I did want to
give an idea of what we are up to, in the hope that it might inspire
others along similar lines. I know the kind of activities we are
organising have been better done in other places and I would urge people
on this list who are involved to let us know what they are doing.
Autopsy should not just be for theoretical discussions but for informed
discussion. I hope people feel informed and perhaps animated by what we
are doing here in Liverpool.

Not so long ago we had a report from Florence where a social centre was
coming under attack from the local authority. I passed on the report to
Liberty Hall and it has had an influence on some of the things we do ?
I?d like to keep Liberty Hall informed about the situation in Florence
and others like it, because in such things perhaps lies our future.

Lastly Liberty Hall now has its own e-mail address and of course there
are people [although I am not one of them] working on a website.

Our e-mail address is <libertyhall@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>.

Although I will pass on any replies, you may feel the need to CC any
messages as well.

ATB

Gra



'Those who work hard and do their best - go down the road with all the
rest.'


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