Can you help bring Anarchists in the Boardroom to Amsterdam and Berlin in November?
Change how we organise. Change the world.
Anarchists in the Boardroom is a journey through worker-run factories, Occupy encampments, a spattering of non-violent direct actions and even a few forward-thinking companies, to make the case for helping our organisations ‘to
be more like people.’ It asks us to brush away our ‘professional’ assumptions and interact as we do when we don’t have job descriptions or business plans telling us how to change the world. It reminds us of the power each of us has to make change happen, even
within the most entrenched of bureaucracies. And it was crowd-funded here on StartSomeGood.
You can read more about it (and order a copy!) here. It exists because of the generosity of those who wanted to read it,
and I hope this tour can come together on the same basis.
Since the book launched, September 24th, a number of people have requested talks and workshops with me.
This has been terrifically exciting and a massive honour.
But a trend is emerging: lots of people who work for NGOs, trade unions and voluntary organisations during the day, are bringing me out on their own time and dime, personally paying for my train tickets, inviting me to stay in
their homes, and organising local meet-ups and talks outside of working hours.
Again, this is a huge honour, but also a sign of how dysfunctional so many social change organisations have become; their staff are organising events with me on their own time, so sure their organisations won’t touch Anarchists
in the Boardroom with a ten-foot pole.
For an event in England, £20-£60 for a train ticket and some food is within the range that those most supportive of the ideas are happy to part with to make it happen. However when the journey is international, the costs move beyond
most individual’s spare budgets.
...Which is why I’m here.
Currently, there are firm offers with several people in both cities committed to organising or hosting me for a series of events, but very little in the way of money to support them.
If you are in Amsterdam or Berlin (or other cities nearby and would like to have me make a stop), could you pitch in to cover the costs of having me?
And if you’re not, could you share this with people in either place you think would be keen to help me get some train tickets and food along the way?
Perhaps in an ideal world, organisations would be covering these costs... but in an ideal world I wouldn’t have had to write this book or go around talking about it, so hopefully we can come together and make the early shoots of
an alternative organisational conversation possible together!
Alternatively, maybe crowd-funding this tour opens up possibilities that institutional backing would have gotten in the way of? Maybe this is the best way to bring more like people thinking to the continent?
Either way, I am grateful for your support!
Liam
Possible itinerary
Berlin –
Change Days – November 1 - 2
Berlin - conversation circle – November 4
Travel to Amsterdam – November 6
Amsterdam –
Budapest cafe – November 7
Amsterdam –
Open Development Camp, November 8
Utrecht - book store talk, TBC - November 9
