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<DIV class=RTE>Thank you for all criticisms and kind comments. If any debate was to be spurred, I hoped it would be about the forth paragraph, and the extent to whether our new space and the forum itself, should be an open, reflexive space or whether it should be a ground for some campaigning (an issue I realise now has been dogging the forum ever since it started up, long before I became involved), or the final paragraph, and initiate some discussion on the productive uses for M.A.T.I.L.D.A.</DIV>
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<DIV class=RTE>Instead it is an admittedly badly judged inbetween paragraph. Badly judged in the sense that it was suposed to be written in a camaraderie spirit, written at a time when I was still feeling at a high point from the weeks actions, and I'm aware I was still writing as though I was communicating with the people I was most closely involved in those actions with, for whom terms such as 'dirty filthy radicals' was just an inoffensive injoke we called each other, and quite frankly, did find the idea of 'mini anarchists' (a term not from me, but from a guy off-list who is a very sound and reasonably minded bloke) entertaining. I didn't think carefully enough about the wider membersip that this list has. I know perfectly well that you can't really split up the people who were involved in the actions into distinct groupings- after all, lots of people, of all ages ended up being in the pen created by the police on Thursday evening. </DIV>
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<DIV class=RTE>And what's more, I feel great respect for the young people (younger then me) who were involved last week- I am there with them, all the way. As I think I tried to explain, I didn't have any interest in political or social issues at all when I was a teenager. Well, I was always deeply concerned about globalization, and about the infiltration of things like Starbucks into our city, and Nike trainers and stuff; but I couldn't precisely fit them into a wider framework- my world view has opened since then. It has opened because of the interactions and encounters I have made with people, first at uni and now all of you people who I've been involved in Peace in the Park and Sheffield G8 with... This is another reason why my writing might be untactfully worded, I haven't completely got to grasp with the lexicography of the left yet. I'm a philosopher and cultural theorist and
culture jammer foremost- and I can only become more fluent in speaking politics with more engagement with you people. This is why I am excited about the existence of a social centre- a place to collectively build up knoweldge and experience, somewhere I can fill the gaps that I know have (and which mean I can't speak with confidence at politically orientated meetings yet) and hopefully share some of my knowledge of, say, complexity science with others. I dont exactly see this as a 'mission... to teach these uncouth hooligans to be more like 'us'' It's more a supple and reflexive learning. I'm an autonomist and don't believe in didactic authorative forms of learning, so how could I mean this?</DIV>
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<DIV class=RTE>I'm very open to learning a lot from the other young people who are, happily, going to be an active part in creating this social space. I bloody wish I'd have been active when I was still at school and college. And just for the record, I live at home at the moment, until I find the right moment to move. So if anybody is going to get a message from home about dinner being on the table, it's probably going to be me : )</DIV>
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<DIV class=RTE>So there we go. I accept I should have put more thought into finding the right words considring the large audience that my former piece was going to get. I'll be getting a complex if I keep on getting replies like the ones I have- I spent the morning wondering if I really was doing a skywalker and slowly turning into Darth Vader, or otherwise a kid from a large northern council estate who was undergoing an unappealing transition into David Blunkett. But I think my integrity is kept. For now.</DIV>
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<DIV class=RTE>But this is not the list for such long essays, and as it seems that enough people are up for more philosophical discussions maybe it is time to set up a list for un-practical matters so that this one doesn't get clogged up with messages like this one and the inevitable reply that contains the entirity of the orignal and so on and so on to eternity.... So I'll set one up. What to call it ?</DIV>
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<DIV class=RTE>Anyway, Dan, is there still a meet up for discussing some of the more practical aspects of running the Massive Alternative Terrain of Insurection, Love and Direct Action on Thursday. Definately no talk about day to day running yet though, until everybody is back from their actions in Scotland, and we can focus on it properly...</DIV>
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<DIV class=RTE>In solidarity.</DIV>
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<DIV class=RTE>Ben.</DIV>
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