...but are afraid to tell you because we can't afford to piss you off

When facilitating community projects, one key question is ‘how do we make this sustainable?’. The answer, supposedly, is to look to funding bodies for financial assistance, by applying for funding bids. This talk explores the realities of relying on funding like this to carry out projects, where things fall through the gaps, and the impact this has on the work that we’re all ostensibly here to carry out.

This episode of the Geeks for Social Change podcast was recorded as part of an NHS Start With People event on March 30th 2023. As this was originally delivered as a talk with slides, there are audio descriptions of each slide as they come up.

Transcript of this episode: https://gfsc.studio/blog/2023/everything-we-want-to-tell-you/

References

• David Graeber's book, 'Bullshit Jobs' on Penguin Books
• Blog post about participatory budgeting and the ladder of citizen participation
• Dean Spade's book, 'Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next)' on Verso Books

Credits

• Music: Cooking, Sharing, Happy Seasons! by Megan Arnold
• Audio recording: NHS Citizen #StartWithPeople event
• Audio production: honor ash
• Transcription: Amy Ní Mhurchú

Find us elsewhere

• Geeks for Social Change website
• Join our Discord
• Follow us on Twitter
• Follow us on Instagram
• Subscribe to our RSS feed

Support us

• on Ko-Fi
• on Open Collective

In the early days of Facebook, the Events feature was the bedrock of a lot of community organising. It was free, all your friends were on it, and it worked well. Events you were organising showed up right in the stream of pokes, icanhazcheezburger and failblog memes, and commenting on your friends' "it's complicated" relationship updates.

Fast forward a decade and it barely works. Facebook's insistence on video content, the effective closure of their APIs for community groups, and increasingly exploitative business model means it's harder than ever to get small community group's events in front of people's eyeballs without paying Facebook a hefty sum for the privilege. As a result we are seeing a mass exodus from the platform and feel like the impact of this for community organising is not fully felt yet.

In this podcast, Kim talks to two highly experienced event organisers: David Hayward, founder of Feral Vector festival, and Rachele Evaroa from The Old Abbey Taphouse in Hulme who was recently voted Manchester's most eccentric landlady. We discuss what the future could look like and our plans for our own PlaceCal platform.

Full information and transcript for this episode: https://gfsc.studio/podcast/2

Mallory Moore (Trans Safety Network), Zara Manoehoetoe (youth worker and community organiser), and Kim Foale (Geeks for Social Change) discuss technologies of state and empire that control our lives. With a special focus on UK trans legal status and lengthy prison sentences given to black teenagers for sending text messages in Manchester.

Full transcript and episode info available on our website: https://gfsc.studio/podcast/1

“I see a lot of the criminal justice system as a technology for further aggravating class divides” - Mallory Moore

“[The CPS] is saying what you hold in your phone, what data sits in your laptop, that is who you truly are as a person” - Zara Manoe

“One day I’m going to have to pass the exam to prove I’m a gender disaster goblin, will that be an official form?” - Kim Foale

Glossary

• CPS: (UK) Crown Prosecution Service
• GMP: Greater Manchester Police
• "Fedposting": Publishing intent to commit a criminal act online

References

• CeCe McDonald (cw: extreme violence against a trans woman)
• Kill the Bill
• Kids of Colour
• The Real World of Technology - Ursula Franklin
• Trans Safety Network

Credits

• Music: Cooking, Sharing, Happy Seasons! by Megan Arnold
• Transcription: Amy Ní Mhurchú
• Thanks to Amy Ní Mhurchú and Gabrielle de la Puente for their invaluable support and feedback