AUL/Streams

Streams within the Autonomous University of Lancaster

After discussions about where AUL sessions should be held, what their purpose was, and so on, there is a proposal to create several streams of activity under the umbrella of AUL. Some streams that have been tentativley put forward:

THE THURSDAY LECTURES

There is a proposal to hold weekly seminar type meetings along similar lines as previous AUL sessions on thursday evenings at the same venue, in town, and possibly at the Friend's Meeting House. There is a call for expanding the circle of AUL contributors and attendees; currently AUL sessions are a somewhat closed event, and although this has happened despite people's best intentions, we should recognise that more needs to be done to attract a wider audience. Some ideas to be discussed further:

Format of seminars - Should they be more formal? Sometimes informal meetings appear like a group of friends chatting, and this can be intimidating to newcomers. How long should they be? How do we ensure that there is open discussion? Etc, etc... Broadening the circle. How to. or should we, attract wider audiences? Should we try to get attractive speakers occasionally?

So, place, time, advertising, how sessions are held, who comes, and so on, all to be discussed further.

UNIVERSITY STREAM

A stream to have sessions about issues that are more related to university, students... How to broaden the attendance to these sessions to include more students, lecturers or anyone interested in university stuff? Shall we set a fixed day/time/venue in uni? etc...

FILMS AND DISCUSSIONS FOR SOCIAL CHANGE!

From the original invitation: "we plan to alternate between the uni and the basement (under single step in town). we've been told it gets cold, so we may relocate at some point!"

In this stream films on diverse topics are shown, giving an introduction to problems of contemporary society in capitalism, leading to radical theory and action.

FILMS AND DISCUSSIONS ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate Chaos is one of the most urgent environmental problems facing people. But, does climate chaos actually address everybody equally? How does who react and can react to climate chaos? This stream adds up to the Lancaster Climate Action Group.

LOVE, GENDER AND SEXUALITY

This stream aims at opening up how our feelings, ideas of sex, gender, attractiveness etc. are channeled in Capitalism. Several films and audio tapes are presented.

CuttingLoose

See: CuttingLooseDespite the strength of their critique, attacks on capitalism are commonly met with the Thatcherite mantra, There Is No Alternative. But is this true? For those who equally reject communist-style central planning, what are the other possibilities?

The idea of these talks is that although capitalism and the money / banking system organises large areas of human life in today's society, it is only one way of doing things and there are still many areas of life that don't work that way. So if we are interested in challenging the way that capitalism tends to distort social relationships in favour of those governed by monetary exchange and private profit, one way of doing this is to look at areas of life that are organised according to different principles, and then think about how these could be extended to work on a larger scale.