AA Academy
The Amsterdam Alternative Academy is a low-threshold initiative to think together about our world. Resistance starts with collective consciousness and consciousness starts with analysis. We will discuss texts and others cultural objects and/or happenings on the topics of capitalism, climate crisis, gender, racism, digitization, and also everyday life (because the personal is still political). We do so by taking an intersectional perspective on capitalism, patriarchy, white supremacy and other dominant power structures.
The AA Academy program ran in 2022 and 2023. At the moment the project is on pause. We need a new team to get it up and running again.
Once, university was a community of equals. We want to return to that ideal (but diverse and intersectional, because of course medieval ideals also only went so far). AA Academy is an inclusive space. We discuss texts in such way that everyone can join regardless of prior knowledge or education. Every person has creative ideas. Let’s create room for those ideas! The meetings are bilingual in Dutch and English, also in that respect we will be creative.
Open call
All the AA Academy events we organanised were very inspiring so we are very interested in getting the project running again. To do so we need to build a new team of volunteers who wants to take on the organisation. We have a lot of people interested in the project, we have a space and channels to promote so all we need is (wo)man power to restart it. Contact us through info(at) amsterdamalternative.nl if interested.
Below an overview of the AA Academy events we organised sofar:
How can the (Dutch) left respond to this (Dutch) right-wing populism?
Wednesday 6 December 2023
Following the victory of the PVV (Freedom" Party) in the recent Dutch elections, we invite you to a conversation and bar night on the rise of right-wing populism in Dutch and, more broadly, European politics. How to respond as left? Before we can respond we have to understand. We will watch and discuss video fragments to contextualize the rise of the PVV and similar parties elsewhere in Europe (Front National, Alternative für Deuthschland, Vlaams Belang). You don't have to be a specialist to join, we are all political specialists in our own ways, because the personal is political. Perhaps this 1960s feminist rallying-cry, "the personal is political" can bring us a bit further in our understanding of what - at this moment of writing, the night of the Dutch elections - feels as a pretty grim reality. Something needs to change in left politics. How?
Location:
Ventilator Bar - OT301 (2nd floor)
Open: 19:15-23:00 hrs
Free entrance
Election night
Wednesday 22 November 2023
Join us in the Ventilator bar for the Dutch election night.
Screening of results in the cinema, drinks and conversation in the bar.
Location:
Ventilator Bar - OT301 (2nd floor)
Open: 20:00-23:00 hrs
Free entrance
Bar and conversation night Palestine
Friday 17 November 2023
Join the Amsterdam Alternative Academy in the Ventilator bar for drinks and conversation about the current situation in Palestine.
Location:
Ventilator Bar - OT301 (2nd floor)
Open: 19:30-23:00 hrs
Free entrance
What is effective climate activism?
Friday 6 October 2023
As the XR protests on the A12 in The Hague are still going strong, this AA academy invites you for a conversation on the question: What is effective climate activism? That is: What activism leads to climate justice? What activism connects people across economic and cultural differences? And how does the climate movement imagine new forms of society? Expect an evening that burns with the same flame of this hot protest fall in the Netherlands, while it also puts the Dutch context in a broader transnational perspective. Join the conversation!
Location:
Ventilator Bar - OT301 (2nd floor)
Open: 19:00-22:00 hrs
Philosophical Trends in Feminism
Wednesday 07 December 2022
This night will be devoted to the question of what a feminist anti-capitalism could look like. For this we will use the book Philosophical Trends in Feminism by Anuradha Ghandy.
The language of discussion will be English, but we will probably work with breakup groups, of which at least one will be in Dutch. On request, the texts to be discussed will be sent in advance as pdf files, in English and Dutch. On the evenings themselves A4 sheets are available with a short description of the theme and a number of discussion points, also in English and Dutch.
Location:
Ventilator Bar - OT301 (2nd floor)
Open: 20:00-23:00 hrs
Free entrance
Eco-Sabotage
Wednesday 23 November 2022
This night we will discuss how we can still save the climate, based on Andreas Malm’s book Eco-sabotage, the Dutch translation of his How to blow up a pipeline.
The language of discussion will be English, but we will probably work with breakup groups, of which at least one will be in Dutch. On request, the texts to be discussed will be sent in advance as pdf files, in English and Dutch. On the evenings themselves A4 sheets are available with a short description of the theme and a number of discussion points, also in English and Dutch.
Location:
Ventilator Bar - OT301 (2nd floor)
Open: 20:00-23:00 hrs
Free entrance
Feminism for the 99%
Wednesday 12 October 2022
This night will be devoted to the question of what a feminist anti-capitalism could look like. For this we will use the book Feminism for the 99% (published by Verso and not yet translated),
The language of discussion will be English, but we will probably work with breakup groups, of which at least one will be in Dutch. On request, the texts to be discussed will be sent in advance as pdf files, in English and Dutch. On the evenings themselves A4 sheets are available with a short description of the theme and a number of discussion points, also in English and Dutch.
Location:
Ventilator Bar - OT301 (2nd floor)
Open: 20:00-23:00 hrs
Free entrance
Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Wednesday 21 September 2022
This night we’ll have a discussion about a chapter from the book Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire, on how to design a space for collective learning. This is an attempt to make the design of the AA Academy a little less messy, and a little more participatory and emancipatory.
The language of discussion will be English, but we will probably work with breakup groups, of which at least one will be in Dutch. On request, the texts to be discussed will be sent in advance as pdf files, in English and Dutch. On the evenings themselves A4 sheets are available with a short description of the theme and a number of discussion points, also in English and Dutch.
Location:
Ventilator Bar - OT301 (2nd floor)
Open: 20:00-23:00 hrs
Free entrance
In May and June 2022 the first three meetings of the Amsterdam Alternative Academy took place. This is a low-threshold initiative of Amsterdam Alternative, to discuss one or more texts collectively and in a cooperative, intersectional and anti-capitalist atmosphere, based on a theme. In our first 3 sessions the theme was the question of whether there is life after capitalism, guided by Mark Fisher’s book Capitalist Realism.
What is capitalist realism? Why did Fisher like Nirvana? Are there hopeful notes in this on the whole somber text? And why is this book currently so popular among young people?
Program:
May 11: parts 1-3
June 1: parts 4-6
June 22: parts 7-9
To participate it is useful to get the book in English or the Dutch translation.
During the meetings there will also be handouts to analyze passages.
Location:
Studios - OT301 (ground floor)
Open: 19:30-23:00 hrs
Free entrance