I Network description

Creative Labour is an offshoot of the Euromayday network, a predominantly European network that mobilizes around the first of may as a day to reclaim rights for the new generations growing up under a new, flexible labour regime and in a European context where welfare entitlements are on the decline.

Some of the main groups involved in the early beginnings of Euromayday, such as the Intermittents in Paris, the Chainworkers in Milano and Yomango in Barcelona, have in the past years been organising around issues of Creative Labour. The Intermittents staging an impressive nation wide campaign around the rights of cultural workers, Chainworkers with their project Serpica Naro dramatically intervening in the Milan Fashion Week, and Yomango and their related projects working on issues of property. Now that the urgency of the 1st of May street mobilisations has become less pronounced, different networks have deepened their commitment to local intervention, addressing broad issues around contemporary forms of labour. Creative Labour is one of the core issues where groups are working on.

In the near future, the aim of the Creative Labour network is to give more centrality to the question of labour conditions and contestation in the discussion around creativity and the knowledge economy, building on different local experiences that have s o far had little international coordination offline. Next to that, of course, the network will to continue to be active on a broad array of activities, that have come to define a European creative undercurrent in socio-economic political thought and activism, and a source of radical innovation.

II Goal of the event

The main goal at Wintercamp is to strategize internationally about creative labour conditions and set up a more structured exchange for the long term, strengthening the network.

The international coordination within the Euromayday has so far been based around more general issues. Coordination around specific creative labour issues has happened mostly informally. This has prevented any further elaboration on questions of creative labour.

By bringing some of the most inspiring and innovative examples of creative labour struggles together, we think we can finally share to the full extent the depth and richness of each and every one of these initiatives. The importance hereof, is that local political and creative context differs markedly as organizational forms. We think an international gathering will give perspective on how to build and extend on the diversity of the different experiences.

For the Wintercamp 09 we also think this strand will prove to have a interesting interaction with the theme area on creative critique and more theoretical avenues to explore the problematic of creativity and knowledge based societies.

III Participants

These are the folks coming for the whole week:

Chainworkers – Milano, Italy (fashion sector)
1. Zoe Romano

Union 2.0 – Italy
2. Davide Barillari

Conservas/EXGAE – Barcelona
3. Simona Levy

Fels – Berlin, Germany
4. Marcus Grätsch

Hamburg Euromayday
5. Lena Oswald, Hamburg
6. Ute Meyer, Hamburg

Carrot Collective, UK
7. Valeria Graziano

8. Valery Alzaga

9. Merijn Oudenampsen, Amsterdam

10. Joan Miquel Gual Bergas, Spain