#common space

[jakubdolezal]

No Way; Tokyo

[spacecadet2k]

Thursday night chill sesh 🍻

[theorisr]

Agents of Influence

Every social movement antagonistic or threatening to the state will attract as a matter of course the attention of the state. There will always be some level of surveillance and infiltration. As social movements, by their nature, are led by various affiliated groups rather than by a single group or organisation, state security will exploit this decentralised organisation by infiltrating certain hubs of the movement. In some cases the hub or persons within the hub will be compromised and thus act as agents of the state, and in other cases certain differences in opinion or ideology will be exploited - making the hub or persons within it act, wittingly or not, as agents of influence.

In the case of Common Space, a new/alternative media outfit broadly aligned with the Scottish independence movement, there are signs that it has become an agent on influence for the British state. Kezia Dugdale, the leader of the unionist Scottish Labour Party, accused Stuart Campbell of the pro-independence Wings Over Scotland blog of homophobia over a tweet in which he said:

Oliver Mundell is the sort of public speaker that makes you wish his dad had embraced his homosexuality sooner.

On the surface, while mentioning the fact that Scottish Conservative and Unionist MSP Oliver Mundell’s father - David Mundell, the Secretary of State for Scotland - came out as a homosexual, this is a comment suggesting it would have been better had Oliver Mundell never been born. Other pro-independence blogs including Wee Ginger Dug and Random Public Journal have roundly rejected the accusation that this was a homophobic sentiment, yet Common Space - in the face of widespread criticism within the movement - went ahead and published an opinion piece by Jordan Daly urging people in the movement to “back Kezia Dugdale and send Wings Over Scotland packing.”

The result of this was days of infighting across the movement with Common Space taking serious flack from thousands of independence supporters on social media. Common Space is closely aligned with the National, Scotland’s only openly pro-independence newspaper, which is a subsidiary of the Herald, a overtly unionist London-owned daily.

What is exposed in this are the many avenues by which Common Space may have been compromised by the British state. Be this the case or not, it is clear that its actions have sown discord in the movement, benefiting the union project in Scotland. It certainly did not help matters when Angela Haggerty, editor of Common Space, published a column in the Sunday Herald - the Sunday edition of the London-owned Herald - suggesting Stuart Campbell’s intended legal action against Dugdale was “dirty” and “divisive.”

[jakubdolezal]

Green Street; Tokyo

[merrilsineusarchitecte]

first time in Athens for participatory LAB, with a full and very interesting schedule : https://en.participatorylab.org/conference-programme - happy to meet there Common Space, ateliermob, Appuii Coordination and many others

[cherryredlips]

As Long As You Want To Read My Thoughts I'm Only Too Happy To Share Them

As Long As You Want To Read My Thoughts I’m Only Too Happy To Share Them

Nine years ago tonight this blog was born out of the desire to find a space where I could voice my support for Scotland’s independence and also to provide a space in which I could tell my truth my way. In those years there have been many changes for both Scotland as a country and myself on a personal level and we inhabit a vastly different country and indeed world than we did when I set off on my…

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[cherryredlips]

Dearest Scotland ( A Letter To The Future Scotland)

On St Andrew’s Day. I share a poem I was inspired to write on attending the Commonweal gathering in the summer of 2014. On a day which was filled with fantastic workshops and motivational speeches from those on the left of the independence movement I was interested to find a very innovative project entitled Dearest Scotland. The project was open to all Scots by which I mean anyone living within…

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