If you have feedback on the 2008 Finding Our Roots conference, please leave it as a comment below! We’ll be holding our third FOR conference in 2009, and your feedback on what went wrong and what went right will help us do better next year!
If you have feedback on the 2008 Finding Our Roots conference, please leave it as a comment below! We’ll be holding our third FOR conference in 2009, and your feedback on what went wrong and what went right will help us do better next year!
Copy of article sent to chicago IMC and infoshop.org
Down with the Empire, Up with Spring
Report Back: Finding Our Roots Conference
April 18-20, 2008 – Chicago, IL
One is always astonished at events like this: so many good people doing so many good things. The Finding Our Roots conference was undoubtedly a success. The organizers were fabulous; the tablers and presenters - magnanimous; the participants – luminous. It is easy to see why contemporary anarchist practice is so vibrant, lively and suppressed. The dominant order doesn’t want it, which in itself is a reason why it continues – a joy in disobedience.
This is an incomplete report, it will need to be worked upon by anyone who might care to do so, in the service of those who have done so well there. One tries to remember as best they can “who, what, where and when” but gets carried away in the fervor, in the enormous paying-attention to others, in the flat-out brilliance of the participants, in the ingenuity of the differents. One does the best they can.
The list for the workshops is still available online, (www.mayfirst.wordpress.com) so they’re not listed here – the eight or so that this writer attended were completely successful, including some guerrilla workshops unlisted there or here. Of these, there was a security culture workshop, with a surprise appearance by the Transhumanists;
a workshop on the fundamental importance of relationships to anarchist practice, by Bill and Camille; a discussion of the value of psycho-drama and the work of Landauer in contemporary anarchist practice, by Ron; as well as a number of others which I hope someone will comment upon. Another pleasant surprise was the presence of Kansas Mutual Aid and Chicago FNB at a workshop on Mutual Aid in Action, given by Kathy.
The Chicago Anarchist Film Festival, Chicago ABC (anarchist black cross), Chicago FNB (food not bombs), the New World Resource Center, the Chicago Stop I-69 group and many others (someone help me here) all had tables with loads of free-to-low-cost-to-for-sale flyers, booklets, pamphlets and books. Of these, one which Ben from the I-69 group put in my hands was called Down with the Empire, Up with the Spring from the “Do or Die” Series written in England. Its blend of history, tactics, theory and rebellious hilarity brought a deep joy and laughter to a haggard soul – it’d been a while.
Task Number Two, from the booklet was called something like “building multi-generational social centers”, and it seemed as if indeed the organizers of Finding Our Roots had done this, if only for a weekend. Participants ranged from the ‘corrupted youth’ age of sixteen (a young woman from Madison) to ‘perverse almost eighty’ (Ron); everyone benefiting from the affirmation which collaborative action can provide. It is hoped that the duration of these kinds of multi-generational encounters can be increased.
It rained and was cold on Saturday, but when the workshops were finished we gathered in the main room for a plenary discussion. (Food, by the way, from the organizers and FNB was wonderful, mostly vegan, plentiful and available throughout the day.) Chicago area organizers commented upon their experiences in organizing and practice. Many problems and issues arose, in which some of the bifurcations and differences in anarchist practice began to appear. This was true on Sunday, as well, in a second plenary session at the end of the conference.
One was reminded of how differences can enrich a discussion without fracturing it, if we decide it should happen as such. Panelists Susan, James, Darrell and Bill presented an eloquent verbalization of differences which are truly and uniquely separate, but which can work together in the achievement of an objective (in this case a panel discussion). The beauty of such a work is that the objective itself changes because of and in relation to the differences of its participants, so that when the discussion was finished any dominant theme or mentality seemed to have disappeared in favor of the collaboration itself (composed of the very differences).
Saturday Night, a ”Black Flag, Black Tie” party was hostessed at Studio Q on Milwaukee Ave. Scrumptious food, lively performances, a fashion show, elegant attendees and barkeeps, fantastic DJ’s and lovely graphics and decorations added a baroque element to the social and the political. One could feel attraction, desire and dance within an ethic of mutual respect. The hostesses outdid themselves at a very low cost to the guest. It was indeed a fundraiser for the film festival and midwest books through bars.
For one, attending Finding Our Roots was very much like living in a documentary film. You have to be there, to get it. Its no fun any other way. Difference is affirmed by differents, and only when differents take the risk and make the effort to get together will difference be affirmed. Only from there will the new become. Congratulations to all the Finding Our Roots people, on a job well done! (Someone please add to this!).
Jones.
I was visiting a friend that weekend and stumbled upon the FOR conference by hearing about it on the internet. I’m from NYC and had never been to Chicago before and the FOR conference made it a great success. It seems like there’s a lot to do in Chicago and a lot of interested groups - which is awesome! I met tons of great interesting people doing all sorta of cool and important stuff. I highly suggest following the advice of one woman I met there and holding the next conference in the southside (unless it’s already planned out to be somewhere else). In NYC we don’t have the virtue of having such a blatantly divided city - there is segregation of course but it’s spread out all over the place. The positive side of the division in Chicago, from my eyes as an outsider, is that you have all the people who want freedom and change the most all in one area waiting to fuck shit up and make their city better! Organizing with them, getting more people of color and women and GLBT people involved in the conference will make some real positive change in Chicago. I think that’s what people there want and I think working with other communities and holding the conference in the southside will really make an impact and broaden the left movement in your awesome city.
Hello
This is the Finding Our Roots organizing collective of 2008. We would wanted to say “thank you” for coming to this year’s conference. We know there is a lot of many cool and interesting things to go to and you took time to come to Finding Our Roots. Without your attendance, we can plan all we want, but our conference is mute. That said, we are hoping you could take a moment out of your day to answer this 10 question survey on the conference;
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=H8LTVadZ7mVjt7Ozvr62GA_3d_3d
Your feedback will help us plan future Finding Our Roots conferences!
Thanks again,
Rachel
on behalf of the collective
http://www.myspace.com/findingourroots
Click Here to take survey