Mutiny's second voyage, Love on Trial, was full to the main sails, with over 135 young people, some climbing the rigging (no really-you should see the fab venue!) enthusiastically engaged in debate, discussion and even some welcome disagreement for well over 5 hours. A number of people have contacted us since with one saying 'it was by far the best political event I have ever been to' and a young lecturer commending us on such an 'inspiring and exciting event'. For me this about sums up the evening. Throughout which there were a number of calls to action including the Unite Against Fascism conference this Saturday and to support the hunger strikers at Yarlswood. We also had reports from various campaigns including the fantastic news that following our lively actions last year against the vile Miss University beauty pageants, this year the organisers have not approached the unis but have been embarrassed into holding only a one off 'final', at which we will, of course, be protesting.
The evening began with Tansy Hoskins facilitating our super speed debating session with questions such as 'Is sex a political subject?', 'Is there anything more important than love?' (one answer was 'solidarity') and 'where do we get morality from?'. Our early arrivers were easily persuaded to get their teeth into these questions right from the beginning, to get to know each other and to set the tone for the night putting people at ease straight away.
The three main sessions gathered momentum as they went along. We have learnt that the first session is always going to be the hardest because people need a bit of encouragement before feeling confident enough to speak. This is significantly different from other public meetings at which you often find the same people making the same speeches, which often discourages those who are shy or nervous.. At Love on Trial we had about 30 different people make some form of contribution which is testament to the relaxed atmosphere of the event.
The sessions were peppered with poetry, short video clips, and music. We have videoed the whole thing and I may make one of some of the highlights if I get the time. All the speakers and performers were great and we thoroughly appreciate them taking the time to come along and participate for the rest of the evening. I have put some of the poetry on the Mutiny blog.
For the final session someone had submitted a short, dinner table-style play which fitted perfectly with our round-table discussion format. But even I didn't realise that they play did not come complete with actors so we had to ask people from the audience to step in. It was brilliant. Everyone really got into the spirit of it.
Love, as a political subject, is an incredibly hard topic to tackle, there are so many things to cover and if we learnt anything from the evening it is that cultural events are an extremely effective way of engaging people in political questions. On a couple of occasions people were literally queing up to get on the mailing list and to get involved with the next one: Democracy on Trial which is set to be held just before the elections. You can join the facebook group HERE
Read more fabulous reviews:
Mutinous Love at For What it is
Mutiny Scrutiny at the-sauce.org
Please do email us at jointhemutiny@gmail.com with any ideas for this-I'm sure we have loads of things we can throw at this topic...eggs anyone?
