As we enter the New Year and days start to get longer again it’s time to get ourselves off the sofa and start Getting Involved. There’s a possible strike brewing with Sandwell bin workers, UCU strike ballots are due to close towards the end of the month if there’s no progress with talks and The RMT is balloting at South Western. There’s community projects nearby and spaces to fill with new and exciting initiatives of your own. Across the country there’s stuff happening at the grassroots, which are always short on people, assets and funds. Now’s the very best time to get on it and fulfil the promise you made to yourself last month that you’d not give up. Head down a picket, cook a bit of food for the homeless, get your radical learning on – and don’t let the bastards grind you down. There’s things yet to do, and we’ve listed some of them below. You’re also welcome to get involved with Freedom Press as well, we’re always looking for volunteers to help with shop stuff, building maintenance, news writing, organising events and the like!

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Cities listed: Brighton | Edinburgh | Leeds | London | Manchester | Newcastle |Norwich | Nottingham | Sheffield

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For groups wanting to get the word out who have been missed here, a good place to start is radar.squat.net. It contains a well-made events listing service and is also able to pick out information from your own calendar, so with a bit of collective effort it could grow into the much-needed service that we’ve been sorely lacking recently.

Birmingham 7th
Hostile Environment: a talk with Maya Goodfellow [FB]7pm at The Warehouse Cafe, 54-57 Allison Street, B5 5TH

Brighton 9th
Brighton IWW general meeting
7pm at the Cowley Club, 12 London Road, BN1 4JA
Strategy, discussion and a warm welcome for newly interested folks in the world of workplace organising. 18th
ACORN Training: Door knocking to win! [FB]11am, venue tba
Developing skills in the key outreach method. 25th
Class & Co-ops Workshop [FB]10am at Millwood Community Centre, Nelson Row, Kingswood St, Carlton Hill, BN2 9QG
Focused on the working class experience, organised by by the Solidarity Economy Association and the Lumpen Project.

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Edinburgh 8th
Common Ground
2pm at ACE, 17 West Montgomery Place, EH7 5HA
Solidarity for the homeless, by people who know. International Women’s Day Group
5.30pm at ACE
Open meeting for women/non-binary people organising for March 8th. Edinburgh Action for Trans Health
7pm at ACE
Resources and support for trans people. 9th
ECAP General Meeting
Organising community solidarity with Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty 19th
Workplace Organising Group [FB]2pm at QUPI , 171 Leith Walk, EH6 8NR
With Edinburgh IWW 30th
The Battle for the Mountain of the Kurds
8pm at Lighthouse Bookshop, 43-45 West Nicolson Street, EH8 9DB
Thomas Schmidinger discusses Afrin, and the current situation in Rojava. Tickets £3.83 from Eventbrite.

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Leeds 16th
Friend Request: Pop Party For The People [FB]9pm at Wharf Chambers, Ground Floor, 23-25 Wharf Street, LS2 7EQ
Nostalgic pop tunes, all funds for trans and nb pals.

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Liverpool 8th
Food Not Bombs
2pm at Next to Nowhere, Basement, 96 Bold Street, L1 4HY
Solidarity food giveaway, also on 15th, 22nd, 29th.

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London 2nd
Railway fare rises protest
8am-9.30am at London’s Kings Cross station
11.30am-12.30pm London Liverpool Street Station 4th
Focus E15 Street Stall
12-2pm on Stratford Broadway
Housing campaign outreach 8th
Field Kitchen
7.30pm at The Field, 358 Queen’s Rd, SE14 5HD
Weekly pay-what-you-can food project. Also runs on the 15th, 22nd and 29th. 13th
UVW 15 day security guard strike for in-house at St George’s Uni [FB]7am at St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
UVW pickets against outsourcing. 15th
Mile End Left Book Club: The Conquest of Bread [FB]7.30pm at The Coborn, 8 Coborn Road, E3 2DA
Discussion on the themes and lessons of this key work by Peter Kropotkin (reading it is not required). Book talk: Steal What You Can
7pm at 5 Caledonian Rd, N1 9DX
Talk with Nathalie Olah and Vicky Spratt about the culture wars and austerity. Tickets £1-5. Workers and Capital Reading Group
7pm at The Common House, Unit 5E Pundersons Gardens, Bethnal Green, E2 9QG 16th
Veganism, Sex and Politics with C. Lou Hamilton
7pm at Freedom Bookshop, Angel Alley, 84b Whitechapel High Street, E1 7QX
The author on their new book Sex & Politics: Tales of Danger and Pleasure 17th Neurodiversity Reading Group
3pm at The Common House, Unit 5E Pundersons Gardens, Bethnal Green, E2 9QG 18th
Rolling picket!
1pm from Oxford Tube Station
Earth Strike noise demo naming and shaming climate destroyer corporations. London Gender Support
1.30pm at The Common House, Unit 5E Pundersons Gardens, Bethnal Green, E2 9QG
Support group for people in the process of self-discovery and gender exploration. 19th
Never Mind the Ballots, Create the Resistance
2pm at MayDay Rooms, 88 Fleet Street, EC4Y 1DH
Talk organised by ACG. 20th
The Pharmaceutical Industry: Private wealth or public health?
6.30pm at Café Diplo at The Gallery, 70/77 Cowcross St, EC1M 6EJ 21st
Afed reading group: Anarchism and Marxism [FB]7pm at Freedom Bookshop, 84b Whitechapl High Street, E1 7QX
Starting a deep dive introducing Marx, economics, the State, and anarchism. Reading list: Peter Singer: Marx. A very short introduction, Karl Marx: Value, Price & Profit 22nd
Protest the ADS arms dealers dinner! [FB]6.30pm at Grosvenor House Hotel, 86-90 Park Ln, W1K 1
Organised by CAAT and Stop The Arms Fair. Book talk: New Model Island
7pm at 5 Caledonian Rd, N1 9DX
How to Build a Radical Culture Beyond the Idea of England’ with Alex Niven and Juliet Jacques. Tickets £1-5. 29th
Behind locked doors: Immigration detention in prisons exposed [FB]6pm at 10 Upper Bank St, Canary Wharf, E14 5JJ
Talks organised by Bail for Immigration Detainees. Free, but register in advance. 30th
Book talk: Journey Through Utopia
7pm at 5 Caledonian Rd, N1 9DX
With Matthew S. Adams, Rhiannon Firth, and Tim Waterman

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Manchester 2nd
Railway fare rises protest
4.30pm-7.30pm at Bolton Station 7th
Organising to win: ACORN 2020 [FB]6pm at Partisan Collective, 19 Cheetham Hill Road, M4 4FY
Direct action grassroots-oriented housing and community union. 9th
We Shall Overcome – meet the movement [FB]6pm at People’s History Museum, Left Bank, Spinningfields, M3 3ER
Free event to find out more about the musical and artistic movement working under the banner of “not charity but solidarity”. 11th
XR: Meeting Facilitation Skills [FB]2.30pm at Home Community Cafe, 6 Barlow Moor Road, M20 6TR
Aimed at understanding and using facilitation in meetings. Not My Prime Minister Protest [FB]6pm at Picadilly Gardens 15th
Hostile Environment: How Immigrants Became Scapegoats [FB]7pm at Partisan Collective, 19 Cheetham Hill Road, M4 4FY
Talk by Maya Goodfellow, author of Hostile Environment: How Immigrants Became Scapegoats 22nd
Ruth Kinna – The Government Of No One, Book Talk and Q+A [FB]6pm at Partisan Collective, 19 Cheetham Hill Road, M4 4FY
Talk on anarchism, its roots and present.

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Newcastle 12th
Star and Shadow volunteer inductions
12pm at the Star and Shadow Cinema, Warwick St, NE2 1BB
Also taking place on the 19th and 26th Letter writing to radical prisoners
2pm at the Star and Shadow Cinema cafe, Warwick St, NE2 1BB 18th
North East Anarchist Group Open Meeting [FB] 12pm at the Star and Shadow Cinema, Warwick St, NE2 1BB 26th
Acorn: Introduction to community organising
11am at the Star and Shadow Cinema, Warwick St, NE2 1BB
Limited space, register here.

Canny Little Library open day
2pm at the Star and Shadow Cinema
Sharing ideas and deciding on the library’s priorities for 2020.

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Norwich 2nd
Railway fare rises protest
10am-12pm at Norwich Station

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Nottingham 4th
People’s Kitchen
6pm-7pm at the Sumac Centre, 245 Gladstone Street
Solidarity and community through food. Also on the 11th, 18th and 25th. 25th
Punk 4 The Homeless
6pm-10pm at the Sumac Centre, 245 Gladstone Street
Food followed by gig, fundraiser with suggested donation of £3.50.

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Sheffield 18th
Reclaim the Power National Gathering [FB]5pm at 18-22 Union Street, S1 2JP
coming together to think about what 2020 might look like for the environmental direct action group.

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Southampton 6th
Community Cafe
11am at October Books 189 Portswood Rd, SO17 2NF
Collected from local traders and served pay-as-you-feel. Also running 13th, 20th, 27th. 29th
Book Launch: Barcelona to Buckie Thistle
7pm at October Books 189 Portswood Rd, SO17 2NF
Local author Mat Guy’s memoir of football at the grassroots and its place in building social cohesion.