A small and short meeting of SLLU volunteers took place on
28th November.
Tasks to be carried out were volunteered for and a date and
time were decided for the next meeting.
Below is a summary and edited highlights of what was spoken
about and decided.
Disappointment was expressed at the recent seeming lack of
interest in Femnet, which at one stage was the most active aspect of SLLU.
The SL OWS, not
unlike the rudderless rl occupy movements, has disintegrated. It had been popular and meetings had been lively,
though because of the politically naive, at times had fallen apart into
ridiculous conspiracy theory.
All present felt that SLLU should continue, though Plot
expressed that he would not be able to organise in the way he has in the past
as it took up a lot of time and his RL political and personal life is
busy. He explained he is an organiser of
the SSP and heavily involved in the Scottish Independence movement which is
working towards a Yes vote in next September’s referendum.
Plot said that if SLLU were to continue in a smaller
capacity - we need to discuss (in the coming weeks) its form, and how much of
this land is needed etc
Agnes suggested we could probably sell some land.
[13:08] Plot Tracer:
i have had offers over the month to sell it - but held off until i could get
some time in here
[13:08] Plot Tracer: and it is also the use of the remaining
land we should think of
[13:08] Corwen Foulsbane: I could move my gallery and
theatre here if that helps generate more activity
[13:09] Plot Tracer:
but we need more "donated tier"
[13:09] Wilma
Mankiller: I say we sell some of the land and keep this area here and the stage
area
[13:09] Wilma
Mankiller: we have donated tier for that?
[13:09] Corwen Foulsbane: Ok. Honestly I have never quite
understood how SLLU finances work ;-P
[13:10] Plot Tracer: well - i'll tell you how they work. :D
-
Plot
Tracer: people donate money. we use it
to buy land - and keep at least £30000 in reserve for emergencies such as when
we fought the french front national and managed to buy land beside them in
order to lag them etc
-
Plot
Tracer: land is group owned. the Unity
hub group is the land group
-
people
donate tier - extra tier not used by
their paid accounts
-
one
member is donating a huge amount of what we have here
-
and some, like me, is donating 500 sq mtres
[13:12] Corwen Foulsbane: So as activity goes down,
inevitably the donations fall
[13:12] Plot Tracer: money doesnt matter regarding land
-
we keep
what we have so long as people donate their tier
-
the
beauty of sllu land is that it truly is group owned. it is not "owned" or controlled by
a landlord etc
[13:14] Corwen Foulsbane: And spare tier comes with having a
premium account, yes?
[13:14] Wilma Mankiller: yes
[13:14] Plot Tracer: what really slows stuff down (and this
is me speaking as a founder and someone who since 2006 has been doing this) is
when we do not recruit new members
-
though we
run the land in a way that even those without
premium accounts can build and make homes here etc
[13:15] Wilma
Mankiller: I tried to make people come here by DJ`ing but [few] showed up
[13:16] Plot Tracer: well - events need advertising. that is what i spendt a huge amount of my sl
time doing. advertising/ spamming other
activist groups/ putting events up on the sl events board etc
[13:15] Plot Tracer: so Corwen - - regardless of you having
a premium acc, you could have your theatre here free
[13:15] Corwen Foulsbane: Well as I immediately see things,
I think there's two things we have to do in the short term
-
Firstly,
we probably should sell some land and we can always buy again as we build up
once more
-
Secondly,
maybe some kind of interim committee to get recruitment on the go, etc
-
And give
the group some direction again
[13:17] Wilma Mankiller: there is one issue though, the
land, especially around the stage area is causing a lot of troubles for people,
lag etc due to too many running scripts
[13:18] Plot Tracer: that problem is one that seems to dog
us here. is there anyway you could look
into that agnes - and get it fixed?
[13:18] Wilma Mankiller: I looked into it, contacted LL,
they said it was because of too many scripts running
-
idk if anyone removed their scripts
[13:19] josjoha: maybe it's
needed to return a lot of objects and rebuild
[13:19] josjoha: the stage area
[13:19] Wilma Mankiller: might be
an idea
[13:20] josjoha: or create a
parcel and set it no-scripts
[13:18] Plot Tracer: re: 2 recruitment
-
we need to think about why we are recruiting
-
I sent
out a few notices about it
[13:19] Corwen
Foulsbane: Yeah. I thought about putting an article on the Left Unity website
(the English LU, that is) about what this group does, or could do
[13:19] Plot Tracer: ok - before we do that - how is this...
-
we
organise a meeting once a fortnight. now
the meeting may be slow to begin with - perhaps just us talking about what we
need to do
-
but then
it can develop into perhaps, political chats, like we used to have - and start
to make links to newer left groups etc -
and perhaps any of the strays from the older ones again
[13:21] Corwen Foulsbane: That sounds like a plan
[13:21] josjoha: fine with me
[13:21] Plot Tracer: ok
[13:22] Plot Tracer: for the next meeting, why dont we in
our own time, take a look around here and come back with ideas of what parts of
the land here we no longer need - and what we should conserve
[13:22] josjoha: maybe we can create some kind of political
map, where various left directions have their positions on various issues
mapped out (?)
[13:22] Plot Tracer: explain jos?
[13:23] josjoha: we have for example the marxists & the
anarchists, and then have their positions on govermnent, trade, capitalism ?
just thinking on this -- maybe it's not a good idea because it stresses the
divisions
-
but i
thought we need to find common ground so, a map seems handy then to find where
all agree and then act on that
[13:22] Corwen Foulsbane: Like most people (I guess) my
issue is going to be with finding a spare evening for an online meeting but at
least if we know when it is then it's maybe easier to try and schedule for it
[13:25] Plot Tracer:
ok - we also need to identify key activists in sl nowadays as well
[13:25] Corwen FoulsbaneCorwen Foulsbane nods
[13:25] Plot Tracer: - not the "heroes" - but
people -like Trill - who actually do stuff that is positive
-
if we
make contacts, and offer help, and perhaps let them use these meetings as a
sounding board for their ideasd- sllu will have purpose
[13:26] Wilma Mankiller: I suppose I could have my good
friend Nadya put up some of her freebies here as a shop
[13:26] Plot Tracer: excellent! :D
[13:27] Wilma Mankiller: I think a bit of rebuilding would
be good too
-
not too
much, but a little
-
like
moving the stage area away from the library
-
that one
has a lot of scripts
[13:28] Plot Tracer: Agnes - can we give that to you to look
at?
[13:28] Wilma Mankiller: ok
[13:28] josjoha: i'm wondering how we can have SL activity
impact RL, maybe we could discuss various ruling class attacks that may be the
same accross nations and see what we can do against those in RL politics/unions
wherever ppl are
[13:28] Corwen Foulsbane: Good idea
[13:29] Plot Tracer: i agree jos - sllu has always had
*some* rl implication/impact.
[13:29] josjoha: ultimately we need to impact RL
-
or even
directly - networking, ideas, what's going on, it's all the same banks we fight
i suppose
-
and the enemy has their councils and confabs ...
they sure seem to make headway
[13:29] Plot Tracer: I think we need to rebuild first,
before we can have this forum making a proper impact.
[13:29] Wilma Mankiller: I always thought it was RL
impacting SL
[13:30] Plot Tracer: maybe agnes - but things like the front
national - when we embarrassed them in the rl press etc; the rl ibm strike we
held here that meant the sacking of the italian ceo and more recently, the rawa
fundraiser... all impacted in rl
[13:31] josjoha: you are in a RL party, right plot ?
[13:31] Plot Tracer:
I am an organiser for the scottish socialist party
[13:31] josjoha: i'm in the labor union (FNV, committee for
local politics city Groningen)
[13:32] josjoha: we
see that the ruling class wants to put ppl on unemployment benefits to work,
without labor contract, 32 hours ... this is something we can discuss across
borders using SL
-
SL should
be a great cross-border platform for information sharing & ideas
-
lot of analysts expect some big economic crash
or war or whatever, i think in case they're right we need SLLU to already be
here
[13:33] Plot Tracer: agnes - you can look into the stage
area?
[13:33] Wilma Mankiller: yes
[13:34] Plot Tracer: Jos - could you do a bit of sl research
to see if there are any active left groups/ activists?
[13:34] josjoha: ok
[13:35] Plot Tracer: Corwen can you look around the area and let us know
at the next meeting where is the best place for your theatre?
[13:35] Plot Tracer: and agnes - perhaps you can ask your
friend about placing a freebie shop
[13:36] Wilma
Mankiller: I can
[13:36] Corwen Foulsbane: Oh and are we all in the Facebook
group if we need to talk outside SL?
Next Meeting
[13:38] Plot Tracer: would the 9th dec be ok for everyone?
[13:41] josjoha: 9
dec 12 pm SLT
[13:41] Plot Tracer: ok - as Corwen says, we can be in touch
on the facebook page - or via email - is that ok?
[13:44] Plot Tracer:
oh - as well as the sl tasks - lets bring one item each from rl we are working
on/ been following - all perhaps explain in a few paragraphs to each other?
[13:45] josjoha:
maybe if we can mesh RL into here more, some RL ppl will find SL meetings more
interesting too
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