Welcome to the Radical Residency! This is a space created by students, artists, radicals, unwaged and waged workers and activists. Radical Residency was set up by poc, queer and radical peeps who scrawl their joy and their rage upon the walls. We put on workshops and events that challenge traditional education and political institutions. We celebrate through solidarity, music, art and learning. We nurture self-development and self-awareness, being reflective and critical of all that we know and that we strive towards. Drop your binaries and your prejudices at the door and actively engage through radical listening and participation.
On Friday 9th March we are having our hearing at 3:30pm at the County Court at The Mayors and City of London Court Guildhall Buildings, Basinghall Street, London EC2V 5AR. We are calling for support and solidarity. Share with your comrades and help us remind the trustees of the British Museum who the real thieves are.
Below is our manifesto:
The Radical Residency presents: Reclaim Your Education
A group of autonomous students, activists and workers have squatted 1 Montague Street, which is an abandoned space owned by the British Museum. We are engaging in act of refusals against the growing marketization and neo-liberalisation of higher education. This is why we are creating an alternative educational space that is not rooted in exclusionary practices. The space will be used as a community centre/alternative learning space as the education system is beyond repair and has led to social and political reproduction that is steeped in neoliberal capitalism. This disproportionally affects oppressed communities, especially working-class communities and communities of colour- without even mentioning the gendered aspect. We call on everyone who wants to contribute and participate to come and reclaim a space in central London to support each other in our endeavour for continuous non-hierarchical learning in which we centre the voices of the most oppressed.
The reason we have chosen to do this now is to show solidarity with the UCU strike. The attack on pensions is the latest attack on our education through greater marketization and commodification. This ideological austerity is pushing people towards greater precarity over the course of our lifetime.
We recognize these issues affecting us are part of a wider global and structural problem. We stand in solidarity with oppressed communities across the world. We as a group support the black liberation of those who are African-descent through the diaspora, indigenous, Palestinian and the struggles of all oppressed groups across the world. The space that we reclaimed is an incubator of international solidarity building. We invite our comrades and compañerxs to join us as all of our struggles intersect.
For centuries Britain has plundered the world and stored its loot in the British Museum. This is a first step towards taking back some of its resources.
