What:

A two full-day workshop engaging with our lived experiences of the class system. Class helps shape all aspects of our lives, including how we organise and work within the arts – most especially the parts of the arts committed to social change, decolonisation and anti-capitalist organising.

This 2-day workshop aims to deconstruct our classed experiences and the ways in which we reproduce the same class system we fight against, in order to create a stronger, more egalitarian Scottish art sector.

An arts sector:

1. with much improved support & working conditions for artists & cultural workers
2. better placed to contribute to social justice movements in Scotland and extend meaningful international solidarity

This is an intensive two-full-day workshop where all participants will have turns to talk and listen and get deep into the interpersonal and systemic aspects of classed dynamics in the Scottish arts world. This workshop doesn’t shy away from unpacking the unsaid difficulties and tensions in the room, and within the wider arts scene, but we aim to end in a place of meaningful cross-class solidarity and support rooted in better collective class consciousness.

Workshop aims:

1. Make space for poor & working class folks to centre and articulate their own experiences and knowledge, share with others

2. Support middle class and owning class folks to gain recognition of and take responsibility for the psychological and material benefits of their class position and take steps towards change

3. Make space to talk and plan for taking action such as collectivising and redistributing financial resources

4. Support the mobilisation of cross-class people working towards radical social change

5. Support a culture of mutual aid and accountability

Tickets/Booking

Places are limited – please fill out the following application if you’re interested in attending: https://forms.gle/oM9yCrsCq8KR6Maa9

This workshop is free for all participants to attend. Saying that, it costs the host organisations roughly £450 per participant to make this workshop happen; it’ll also be in high demand. We welcome applications from people of all class backgrounds within the arts in Scotland but please only apply if you can participate fully over the two days.

Where:

Saturday 8th Nov: Clyde Community Hall, 41 Whitefield Rd, City, Glasgow G51 2YB

Sunday 9th Nov: Kinning Park Complex, 43 Cornwall St, Kinning Park, Glasgow G41 1BA
Timings: both days will take place from 9:30am until 5:30pm.

Context

The UK class system is complicated and contested. Within the UK ‘left’, we often see narratives of a united working class, fighting for collective equality – and yet – not all members of this ‘united working class’ are treated as equals.

Much of the working class are marginalised and demonised – be that through unemployment, insecure housing, access to education, work opportunities or immigration status and the impacts of this have profound socio-psychological effects on the individuals who experience the sharpest end of the capitalist system.

This workshop will explore the fragmentation and stratification within the UK class system paying particular attention to the impacts this has on individuals within the Scottish arts scene and those who are excluded from it. It will emphasise the voices of those with lived experience of prolonged poverty and marginalisation, while also looking at the ways people of all class backgrounds can actively fight against class injustice.

This workshop draws heavily upon our personal classed experiences within a capitalist UK context to examine the ways our lives are shaped by our class position. We will also pay attention to the ways class intersects with other parts of our identities, such as gender, race and ability.

While we’ll be introducing you to some key ideas and concepts, most of the workshop requires your active participation and willingness to reflect on your own class position within the group and the larger Scottish arts community.