Save Our Old Town (SOOT) have accepted a kind invitation to the following event and will take part in the discussions..

RESISTING REGENICIDE : STRUGGLES IN THE CITY

“Our relationship to the built environment is perhaps the most crucial
element to the quality of community life.”

EDINBURGH event - Sunday 2 November 7.00–9.30pm

The Forum : ACE, 17 West Montgomery Place, Edinburgh, EH7 5HA
http://forumcollective.wordpress.com
MAP: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=EH7+5HA&output=html


Free discussions bringing together representatives of community &
activist groups - including local groups from Glasgow, Edinburgh,
London and Manchester - to share their experience of community-based
engagement in the planning processes of urban regeneration and the
built environment.

In the British-wide context of gentrification, and with a failing
neo-liberal economic model, questions surrounding the ownership and
management of social space have never been more relevant. The language
of regeneration in fact sugar-coats the reality of gentrification: the
privatisation of essential infrastructure is a policy of liberating the
forces of greed.

It is important to remember that "ideas have consequences", and
important to question what happens when these are tested in the real
world. In response, we need better ideas and solidarity strategies. The
worsening financial crisis provides the public with an opportunity to
redefine what constitutes 'the public interest' and to reassert its
claims over how finance should be managed and allocated and in whose
interest.

Film excerpts will be used to inform the discussions: a strong
dimension connecting the diverse groups is their shared interest in an
engaged film making practice as a basis for connecting people.

Anthony Iles - Mute - http://www.metamute.org
Mark Saunders - The Spectacle - http://www.spectacle.co.uk
Martin Slavin - Games Monitor - http://www.gamesmonitor.org.uk
Neil Gray - Variant - http://www.variant.org.uk
Save Our Old Town representative - http://www.eh8.org.uk


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NOTES on PARTICIPANTS


Mark Saunders (Spectacle)

Mark Saunders, a film-maker, writer and activist, will be showing some
work in progress extracts from Spectacle's film on the London Olympics.
Spectacle is an independent television production company specialising
in documentary and community-led investigative journalism.
http://spectacle.co.uk/
http://www.metamute.org/en/The-Regeneration-Games


Martin Slavin (Games Monitor)

Games Monitor is a network of people raising awareness about issues
within the London Olympic development processes. The network operates
with an open, dynamic principle, and functions as a discussion forum,
research body, press and political lobby. Martin Slavin is a writer and
activist associated with the site.
http://www.gamesmonitor.org.uk/





Neil Gray (Variant magazine)

Variant Magazine makes lateral links across media in both a local and
international context and examines how this manifests itself in visual,
intellectual and social cultures. Neil Gray is a writer, activist and
film-maker associated with Variant.
http://www.variant.randomstate.org/33texts/3_V33gray.html
http://www.variant.randomstate.org/25texts/neolib25.html


Anthony Iles (Mute magazine)

Mute magazine is an online magazine dedicated to exploring culture and
politics after the net. Anthony Iles is a writer and researcher
associated with Mute, the Broadway Occupation, and Games Monitor.
http://www.metamute.org/en/The-Re-Occupation
http://www.metamute.org/en/divided_city_ii


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ALSO see:

http://glasgowresidents.wordpress.com
http://www.hackneyindependent.org
http://citystrolls.com
http://www.pnuk.org.uk


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  NOTES on FILMS

'The Occupation' (The London Particular, 2001, 15 mins)

A short, very precise film about social cleansing and recolonisation in
London’s East End: "In the name of inner city rebirth and renewal,
regeneration gives us state-sponsored gentrification and an intensified
attack on the working class. It obscures its true objectives behind a
dense and proliferating fog of quangos, agencies, partnerships, and
funding bodies. Unaccountable and untransparent, they collectively
dictate the new shape of the city through a pseudo-democratic discourse
of consultation and participation."
http://thelondonparticular.org/


'Five Ring Circus' (Conrad Schmidt, 2007, excerpts)

The "Five Ring Circus" exposes a side to the Vancouver Olympics which
has not been revealed before.  This film shows how this three week
event is changing Vancouver forever. Find out what mayors, activists
and residents think of the 2010 olympic games. With three years to go
before the games, this documentary examines how the commitments to
environmental, social and economic  sustainability have not been kept
and how the preparations for the games are affecting diverse
communities
http://www.thefiveringcircus.com/


'The Fog of Games: Legacy, Land grabs and Liberty' Mark Saunders,
Spectacle 2008, excerpts).

In the Fog of Games the first victim is the truth.  The Olympics, like
other sporting spectaculars, are only brief and transitory television
events that disguise and justify Mega projects of vast urban
restructuring that permanently distort our cities for the benefit of a
few business interests . The common features of these Mega projects are
unprecedented land grabs, the peddling of myths of "regeneration" and
"legacy" benefits for the host community, the sweeping away of
democratic structures and planning restraints, the transfer of public
money into private hands and "information management" to hid truths and
silence of critics.

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Organised by Variant affinity group and The Forum
http://www.variant.org.uk
http://forumcollective.wordpress.com