Entry for May Radical Rumours
It’s been an interesting few months for Rhizomers here in Notts- we’ve now welcomed Tina, Dan and Tasha more formally as new members of the group. They’ve come through a gruelling joining process of going out for a meal and drinking together, followed by talking about their living habits to a room full of people, and it’s lovely to have them on board.
On the housing front, soon after finalising our loan from Radical Routes at the February gathering, we decided not to go through with buying the property that we had in mind. After further thought and discussion, we realised that it probably wasn’t the right project for us, and all the renovations required made the business plan quite tight. So, we’re back on the property trail, looking for something that’s a bit less work and better value. We’ve been exploring new areas in Nottingham, such as Sneinton, where there are some interesting cheap properties (including old pubs!), and we’ve recently discovered two adjacent properties in Radford, which seem promising.
February was chock-a-block full of gatherings at the Sumac, with the Radical Routes and No Borders gatherings being the two that many of us were most involved in, making it a busy but inspiring few weeks. Kate and Tom are doing a much valued job by helping to keep the Sumac bar running, while Dom has stepped up to help with the organisation of the weekly People’s Kitchen, keeping us well fed. Andrew is continuing much of his good work behind the scenes at the Sumac, while also mending bikes with Framework and more generally wherever he goes! Emma has spent a great deal of time helping to guide the Crocus community cafe through difficult times, and hopefully the future is looking brighter after a bit of a fright and some financial rearranging.
Ben spent a week learning about ‘tools for social change’ with the Trapese Collective, getting lots of ideas for current and future projects, including the Nottingham Freeschool, which has taken him and Dom to several events to run innovative workshops that aim to challenge the hierarchies found in traditional educational models, and inspire creative and empowered learning. There is also a conference at the University being planned, under the theme of ‘full circle’, looking at the links between the arms trade and migration, for which Ben is doing a lot of the leg work. Andrew, Tom and Penny have been diligently cooking with Food not Bombs, which has been providing free meals every week at the Crocus cafe since December. Tina, Dan and Penny continue to be involved in a group rather aptly named ‘It’s a Mad World’, where we discuss perspectives on mental health and society, and how we can create grassroots responses to this. Tasha, Tina, Dom, Ben, Kate and Dan are helping to kick start the No Borders group in Nottingham again after a small period of dormancy, with lots of ideas for developing more migrant solidarity work in the future, alongside working at the Refugee Forum. Dan continues to do really valuable work keeping Notts Indymedia running, and some of us were recently involved in successfully shutting down local arms manufacturers H&K for the day, which consisted of a two pronged attack from the roof and the gates- an amazing feat! As a group, Rhizome also organised a ‘Battle of the House Bands’ fundraiser earlier this year, which will surely go down as one of the silliest and most bizarre nights in Sumac history, with renditions of ‘Breaking the Law’ and ‘Fuck the Police’ stealing the show.
Update
Things are looking exciting at the moment for Rhizome as we are currently going through the process of expanding our membership and putting an offer in on a house. The house is situated in the New Basford area of the city and consists of a three bedroom semi-detached house with a separate former factory outbuilding, which we would hope to convert into a combination of bedrooms, community space and bunkspace for short term housing. We’re all learning a lot as we try to jump through the hurdles of planning permission, house of multiple occupancy licensing and mortgages, but with potentially eleven of us now involved, it looks like we could be on the way to making the project a reality. The Radical Routes gathering in a few weeks time will be an opportunity for us to talk to lots of experienced hands about the similar situations they have been in, and we will hopefully get confirmation of our loan from them. As ever, we would love to hear from people interested in supporting the co-op both practically and financially (via loanstock), so please feel free to get in contact to find out more.
Our latest entry for Radical Rumurs
“A quietish quarter for Rhizome with rhythms being settled into and headspace being cleared. The house hunt has brought some success and we’re zeroing in on a house in Forest Fields, an old H.P factory as it goes, so any hope of not forever being in Ned’s shadow has gone to pot. Nonetheless we adore the house -even with all the improvements it needs- and Kate, Ben and Penny have been working with Andy from the finance group on a business plan. We’ve also picked ourselves up some new perspective members who are all involved in a variety of exciting projects around Nottinhgam. As a collective we’ve continued to put on regular fundraisers and Sunday brunches at the Sumac to varying levels of success. As individuals we’ve been up to the usual hotpotch of things. The most unlikely of these is Dom discovering environmental activism (almost as unlikely as his joining of the Kids group), much to his chagrin and has visited Shipperly and Mainshill with plans to head off to Rossport when cannon fodder is needed there again (he still harbours a strong resentment to all things green and countryside). Whilst he’s been at that, Penny, Kate, Ben and Tom have kickstarted Food Not Bombs in Nottingham with free meals at the crocus cafe and as part of the support team for the Anti-Fascists when the E.D.L came to Nottingham.
The Crocus continues to be at the forefront of Emma’s mind as she maintains her place on the board there, even as she engages with the setting up and establishment of other community run cafes around Nottingham, along with working towards setting up a community arts and activism space next door to the crocus in the Lenton area. Under the theme of continuation Calais Migrant Solidarity and No Borders have stayed in the forefront of many Rhizomers minds with visits to the border and fundraisers going in tandem with the case work done by Penny, Kate and Dom. Penny continues to be heavily involved in Refugee Forum and has helped initiate an English Conversation group on thurday nights. Andrew keeps on anti-trucking preaching the testaments of cycling wise, alongside his long term and much valued work behind the scenes at the Sumac. He, along with Kate will be the Rhizomers relied upon as our first house is renovated. Tom flies about town like a hungry gazelle forever searching out projects with which to lend a helping hand, which includes maintaining strong affinity with J.B spray squat and joining the bar collective at the sumac. Ben, now the only current student left in Rhizome has been left with the painful task of radicalizing the students of Nottingham, as part of this he and Dom put on “Resistance 101″ Nottingham Free School’s first event at the University of Nottingham, where they pitched up some tents and a gazebo for a week and held a series of workshops ranging from Class War to Radical Ecology, it was a relative success and managed to get a wide range of Nottingham focus to attend. The Free School continues to be a long term project of Rhizomers, and will be putting on various other events over the coming months, and hopefully working closely with the Sumac Skillshare collective of which Dom has recently become a part. Other campus related activism of which Ben has been initiating is the Stop Sodexo campaign, Anti-Militarism on campus and other Nottingham Student Peace Movement events. Whilst Kate intends to join Ben back on campus in September she’s currently becoming involved in V3, a workers co-op training people around the country to build wind turbines. She’s also joined the loanstock group, and has been helping out, along with the rest of Rhizome with accomodation for the next Radical Routes gathering. For which Dom has put together the agenda.
With the possibility of a house in the next few months Rhizome life is looking fairly exciting, and new projects just starting up include the Nottingham Anarchist Black Cross, Nottingham Trauma support group, a Welfare Reform Solidarity group as well as a Full Circle campaign attempting to strengthen ties between various issues and develop direction action strategies that are multi-issue rather than single issue. Everyone is very excited at the possibilities of using the co-op as a both a housing solution and launch pad for successful and effective radical activism.”
Public Meeting
Rhizome are having a public meeting on Wednesday 2nd Dec, 6pm, at the Sumac Centre (245 Gladstone St, Forest Fields, NG7 6HX). We would like to hear new voices and opinions for a demoncratic discussion about the future direction of the co-op, and the meeting is open to anyone.
