What we’re about
The Left Culture Club hosts social events, skill-sharing workshops, cultural activities, film screenings, reading groups and games nights for London's progressives, dissidents, and radicals. Everyone is welcome, whatever your politics or your level of political committment.
The Club was created to solve a problem: how do we bring together all people trying to face the political, economic and social challenges of our times and give them a space to understand each other better, without making political parties or activist organisations the starting point? There's nothing worse than trying to get to know people and explore progressive politics when the price of admission to these spaces is making all the right political committments, reading all the right literature, or having the right backstory. The LCC wants to make the political left a welcoming place again, and that means providing a space for progressives and radicals to move together without having to sign up to each others' newsletters from day one.
If you ever wanted to learn more about emancipatory politics, or if you've ever felt like your activist group or political org wasn't providing the social space that every broad movement needs in order to hold itself together, then the Left Culture Club is for you.
We're committed to making every one of our events welcoming and safe for everybody. Our spaces are non-partisan, but not apolitical. Racism, sexism, antisemitism, classism, forms of discrimination based on sexual preference or gender identity: all these are obviously way out of line. If you are a victim of bigotry or harrasment at any of our events, please raise this with an organiser who will act appropriately. We broadly follow this code of conduct https://wiki.dbzer0.com/the-anarchist-code-of-conduct/.
Upcoming events (2)
See all- LCC Nature Walks: RICHMOND PARK & Wimbledon Common (SW LONDON)Richmond Station, London
Hello comrades! LCC's nature-walking series continues with another Tube-accessible gem for Londoners in search of wild, green spaces. For this weekend's outing, we're down in near-south-west to take on Richmond Park and Wimbledon Common, two of the capital's biggest green spaces. This will be a mostly flat hike with a fair amount of dirt trails, so good hiking shoes are recommended but not potentially a deal-breaker. Richmond Park is accessible from Richmond station on the Mildmay, District, and National Rail lines.
The first thing that stands out about Richmond Park is the deer. Created in the 17th century by Charles I as a deer park for royal hunting parties, Richmond's is the largest of the Royal Parks and is of national and international importance for wildlife conservation.
Some deer parks were established in the Anglo-Saxon era and are mentioned in Anglo-Saxon Charters; these were often called hays (from Old English heġe (“hedge, fence”) and ġehæġ (“an enclosed piece of land”). After the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, William the Conqueror seized existing game reserves. At their peak at the turn of the 14th century, deer parks may have covered 2% of the land area of England.
Historically, local commoners had the right to gather wood, pannage and other amenities from the forest free of charge; these rights were restricted in 1872, although a full right of public access to the park was confirmed by Act of Parliament in the same year.
Richmond Park is also the birthplace of radio astronomy. During WWII, the park hosted a research site of the Army Operational Research Group (AORG), where Stanley Hey researched anti-aircraft radar. During these investigations, Hey semi-accidentally discovered that the Sun is a source of radio waves, and he began to experiment with radio reflections from meteor trails and other noise from cosmic sources. In 1946 Hey's group discovered Cygnus A, later shown to be the first radio galaxy. The Richmond Park installation thus became the first radio observatory in Britain.
Our route will take us around Richmond Park south and then east into Wimbledon Common, where we'll loop back to our starting point from the north. Keep an eye out for deer along the way! We'll end with a pub session somewhere in Richmond town.
- Distance/Time: About 13km, making for a roughly 4-4.5 hour walk, depending on our speed
- Terrain: Mostly flat; mix of paved paths, dirt tracks, and grass.
- Supplies: Bring 3L water, snacks, and a packed lunch if desired
- Weather: Check forecasts; we're likely to have sun, but bring a windbreaker and/or rain layer ideally.
- Massive Sports Megagame "ZARNITSA" | It's a bit like Russian Capture the FlagWick Woodland, London
WHAT IS ZARNITSA?
Zarnitsa (Зарница), or heat-lightning, officially known as the All-Union Young Pioneer military sports game "Zarnitsa", is a massive multi-player physical sports game developed and practiced by the Young Pioneers communist youth organisation during the Soviet era. The game provides a simulation of military actions such as reconnaissance, co-ordinated offensives, giving chase, etc. Popular once again in modern Russia, this is a simple game designed for children and young people in military/cadet organisations, but great fun for active people of all ages.
The rules of Zarnitsa are based on the classic capture the flag concept. Two teams each have a "base area" with a flag contained within, concealed or otherwise. Each team's goal is to protect their own flag and seize the other team's and bring it back to the base area. Players can walk, run, sneak, hide, create diversions and use any means short of physical violence to achieve their objectives.
What makes Zarnitsa different from classic CTF is simply this: every player has two velcro-attached shoulder straps that serve as health indicators and can be torn off by the opponents. Losing one indicates "wounded", losing two indicates "dead". The "wounded" players cannot run and should only walk. The "dead" players return to a respawn point or leave the game in some modes.
Why are we doing this? Capture the flag is simply top fun and anyone who says otherwise is joking themselves. Zarnitsa's slightly elevated level of complexity should give us just that extra challenge needed to really make it interesting. That said, this is our first go with organising multiplayer sports games, so we'll see what the results are! As always comments, questions, suggestions and concerns are more than welcome - just contact an organiser.
Sports games are a great way to get and stay active, meet new people, and break the monotony of everyday life under British capitalism. Let's get out there!
For our first attempt at organising a little Zarnitsa league here in London, we'll hit up Hackney Marshes and Wick Woodland. We'll divide into two teams; each will receive coloured vests or other garments to which the health indicator strips are attached. Then we'll take up our places, count down from 60 seconds, and let the games begin!
Note: we'll want at least five people per team for this to really work right, so we'll cancel or reschedule if this one gets less than 9 RSVPs. There's no limit to how big our group can be of course, so please do join us! Just be sure to either turn up on the day or change your RSVP if you can't make it in the end, just so we know what to expect.
Take care and see you on the pitch!
