As we enter the New Year and days start to get longer again it’s time to get ourselves off the sofa and start Getting Involved.

There’s a possible strike brewing with Sandwell bin workers, UCU strike ballots are due to close towards the end of the month if there’s no progress with talks and The RMT is balloting at South Western. There’s community projects nearby and spaces to fill with new and exciting initiatives of your own.

Across the country there’s stuff happening at the grassroots, which are always short on people, assets and funds. Now’s the very best time to get on it and fulfil the promise you made to yourself last month that you’d not give up. Head down a picket, cook a bit of food for the homeless, get your radical learning on – and don’t let the bastards grind you down.

There’s things yet to do, and we’ve listed some of them below. You’re also welcome to get involved with Freedom Press as well, we’re always looking for volunteers to help with shop stuff, building maintenance, news writing, organising events and the like!

Cities listed: Brighton | Edinburgh | Leeds | London | Manchester | Newcastle |Norwich | Nottingham | Sheffield

For groups wanting to get the word out who have been missed here, a good place to start is radar.squat.net. It contains a well-made events listing service and is also able to pick out information from your own calendar, so with a bit of collective effort it could grow into the much-needed service that we’ve been sorely lacking recently.

Birmingham

7th

Hostile Environment: a talk with Maya Goodfellow [FB]

7pm at The Warehouse Cafe, 54-57 Allison Street, B5 5TH

Brighton

9th

Brighton IWW general meeting

7pm at the Cowley Club, 12 London Road, BN1 4JA

Strategy, discussion and a warm welcome for newly interested folks in the world of workplace organising.

18th

ACORN Training: Door knocking to win! [FB]

11am, venue tba

Developing skills in the key outreach method.

25th

Class & Co-ops Workshop [FB]

10am at Millwood Community Centre, Nelson Row, Kingswood St, Carlton Hill, BN2 9QG

Focused on the working class experience, organised by by the Solidarity Economy Association and the Lumpen Project.

x

Edinburgh

8th

Common Ground

2pm at ACE, 17 West Montgomery Place, EH7 5HA

Solidarity for the homeless, by people who know.

International Women’s Day Group

5.30pm at ACE

Open meeting for women/non-binary people organising for March 8th.

Edinburgh Action for Trans Health

7pm at ACE

Resources and support for trans people.

9th

ECAP General Meeting

Organising community solidarity with Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty

19th

Workplace Organising Group [FB]

2pm at QUPI , 171 Leith Walk, EH6 8NR

With Edinburgh IWW

30th

The Battle for the Mountain of the Kurds

8pm at Lighthouse Bookshop, 43-45 West Nicolson Street, EH8 9DB

Thomas Schmidinger discusses Afrin, and the current situation in Rojava. Tickets £3.83 from Eventbrite.

x

Leeds

16th

Friend Request: Pop Party For The People [FB]

9pm at Wharf Chambers, Ground Floor, 23-25 Wharf Street, LS2 7EQ

Nostalgic pop tunes, all funds for trans and nb pals.

x

Liverpool

8th

Food Not Bombs

2pm at Next to Nowhere, Basement, 96 Bold Street, L1 4HY

Solidarity food giveaway, also on 15th, 22nd, 29th.

x

London

2nd

Railway fare rises protest

8am-9.30am at London’s Kings Cross station

11.30am-12.30pm London Liverpool Street Station

4th

Focus E15 Street Stall

12-2pm on Stratford Broadway

Housing campaign outreach

8th

Field Kitchen

7.30pm at The Field, 358 Queen’s Rd, SE14 5HD

Weekly pay-what-you-can food project. Also runs on the 15th, 22nd and 29th.

13th

UVW 15 day security guard strike for in-house at St George’s Uni [FB]

7am at St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

UVW pickets against outsourcing.

15th

Mile End Left Book Club: The Conquest of Bread [FB]

7.30pm at The Coborn, 8 Coborn Road, E3 2DA

Discussion on the themes and lessons of this key work by Peter Kropotkin (reading it is not required).

Book talk: Steal What You Can

7pm at 5 Caledonian Rd, N1 9DX

Talk with Nathalie Olah and Vicky Spratt about the culture wars and austerity. Tickets £1-5.

Workers and Capital Reading Group

7pm at The Common House, Unit 5E Pundersons Gardens, Bethnal Green, E2 9QG

16th

Veganism, Sex and Politics with C. Lou Hamilton

7pm at Freedom Bookshop, Angel Alley, 84b Whitechapel High Street, E1 7QX

The author on their new book Sex & Politics: Tales of Danger and Pleasure

17th

Neurodiversity Reading Group

3pm at The Common House, Unit 5E Pundersons Gardens, Bethnal Green, E2 9QG

18th

Rolling picket!

1pm from Oxford Tube Station

Earth Strike noise demo naming and shaming climate destroyer corporations.

London Gender Support

1.30pm at The Common House, Unit 5E Pundersons Gardens, Bethnal Green, E2 9QG

Support group for people in the process of self-discovery and gender exploration.

19th

Never Mind the Ballots, Create the Resistance

2pm at MayDay Rooms, 88 Fleet Street, EC4Y 1DH

Talk organised by ACG.

20th

The Pharmaceutical Industry: Private wealth or public health?

6.30pm at Café Diplo at The Gallery, 70/77 Cowcross St, EC1M 6EJ

21st

Afed reading group: Anarchism and Marxism [FB]

7pm at Freedom Bookshop, 84b Whitechapl High Street, E1 7QX

Starting a deep dive introducing Marx, economics, the State, and anarchism. Reading list: Peter Singer: Marx. A very short introduction, Karl Marx: Value, Price & Profit

22nd

Protest the ADS arms dealers dinner! [FB]

6.30pm at Grosvenor House Hotel, 86-90 Park Ln, W1K 1

Organised by CAAT and Stop The Arms Fair.

Book talk: New Model Island

7pm at 5 Caledonian Rd, N1 9DX

How to Build a Radical Culture Beyond the Idea of England’ with Alex Niven and Juliet Jacques. Tickets £1-5.

29th

Behind locked doors: Immigration detention in prisons exposed [FB]

6pm at 10 Upper Bank St, Canary Wharf, E14 5JJ

Talks organised by Bail for Immigration Detainees. Free, but register in advance.

30th

Book talk: Journey Through Utopia

7pm at 5 Caledonian Rd, N1 9DX

With Matthew S. Adams, Rhiannon Firth, and Tim Waterman

x

Manchester

2nd

Railway fare rises protest

4.30pm-7.30pm at Bolton Station

7th

Organising to win: ACORN 2020 [FB]

6pm at Partisan Collective, 19 Cheetham Hill Road, M4 4FY

Direct action grassroots-oriented housing and community union.

9th

We Shall Overcome – meet the movement [FB]

6pm at People’s History Museum, Left Bank, Spinningfields, M3 3ER

Free event to find out more about the musical and artistic movement working under the banner of “not charity but solidarity”.

11th

XR: Meeting Facilitation Skills [FB]

2.30pm at Home Community Cafe, 6 Barlow Moor Road, M20 6TR

Aimed at understanding and using facilitation in meetings.

Not My Prime Minister Protest [FB]

6pm at Picadilly Gardens

15th

Hostile Environment: How Immigrants Became Scapegoats [FB]

7pm at Partisan Collective, 19 Cheetham Hill Road, M4 4FY

Talk by Maya Goodfellow, author of Hostile Environment: How Immigrants Became Scapegoats

22nd

Ruth Kinna – The Government Of No One, Book Talk and Q+A [FB]

6pm at Partisan Collective, 19 Cheetham Hill Road, M4 4FY

Talk on anarchism, its roots and present.

x

Newcastle

12th

Star and Shadow volunteer inductions

12pm at the Star and Shadow Cinema, Warwick St, NE2 1BB

Also taking place on the 19th and 26th

Letter writing to radical prisoners

2pm at the Star and Shadow Cinema cafe, Warwick St, NE2 1BB

18th

North East Anarchist Group Open Meeting [FB]

12pm at the Star and Shadow Cinema, Warwick St, NE2 1BB

26th

Acorn: Introduction to community organising

11am at the Star and Shadow Cinema, Warwick St, NE2 1BB

Limited space, register here.



Canny Little Library open day

2pm at the Star and Shadow Cinema

Sharing ideas and deciding on the library’s priorities for 2020.

x

Norwich

2nd

Railway fare rises protest

10am-12pm at Norwich Station

x

Nottingham

4th

People’s Kitchen

6pm-7pm at the Sumac Centre, 245 Gladstone Street

Solidarity and community through food. Also on the 11th, 18th and 25th.

25th

Punk 4 The Homeless

6pm-10pm at the Sumac Centre, 245 Gladstone Street

Food followed by gig, fundraiser with suggested donation of £3.50.

x

Sheffield

18th

Reclaim the Power National Gathering [FB]

5pm at 18-22 Union Street, S1 2JP

coming together to think about what 2020 might look like for the environmental direct action group.

x

Southampton

6th

Community Cafe

11am at October Books 189 Portswood Rd, SO17 2NF

Collected from local traders and served pay-as-you-feel. Also running 13th, 20th, 27th.

29th

Book Launch: Barcelona to Buckie Thistle

7pm at October Books 189 Portswood Rd, SO17 2NF

Local author Mat Guy’s memoir of football at the grassroots and its place in building social cohesion.