The intellectual collective presents Dissident Warwick

Last Friday saw the release of this year’s first issue of Dissident Warwick. The ‘zine’ is an “alternative space for alternative politics”, according to Chris Rossdale, a core member of the Dissident group.

Rossdale is not editor of the zine however, because Dissident Warwick is a collaboration. There is no chief editor, there are no designated exec roles, there is no “hierarchical power structure”. Every writer, Rossdale explains, has equal editorial power, as the content and layout are determined by group decision.

This process functions through a blog, which can only be accessed by those writing for the zine. Topics are not allocated, but freely chosen by writers. Each article is then posted on the blog, and all the other writers comment on and edit the piece. The result: “Individualism in writing married with collaborative editing”.

This collaborative drive was a crucial factor in the Reinvention Centre’s decision to fund the zine, which also receives funding from the Students’ Union.

Dissident Warwick struck a chord with the Reinvention Centre for its progressive principals shared by a group of writers, but Rossdale is keen to state that these “broad principles” do not constitute a manifesto. Dissident Warwick is not, he says, a politically motivated zine with a classified political message. The aim instead is to “explore radical ideas, and generate debate”.

The new issue showcases a number of different viewpoints. Writers include socialists, anarchists, a women’s rights advocate and a central figure from Warwick’s ‘People and Planet’. The articles in this issue cover activism and economics, this summer’s Climate Camp and two articles discussing Barack Obama, among others, conveying two different perspectives.

This demonstrates the aim of Dissident Warwick; Rossdale explains that the zine’s aim is not to dictate a way of thinking, but to make people realise that there is more than one way to view an issue.

For this reason, Dissident Warwick has a public blog, giving readers the opportunity to voice their own comments. This public blog also includes resources and links to other websites, so that interested readers can access more information on the topics that matter to them.

Dissident Warwick is issued three times during the academic year, although Rossdale suggested that two may be produced in the second term, subject to funding, in order to relieve the workload over the exam period.

Future plans for Dissident Warwick involve Dissident Speakers, a society which “brings people to Warwick whose work leaves them in a unique position to talk about what’s happening, why it’s happening and how we can change it.”

The zine already includes articles from former Warwick students and their experiences in the ‘real world’, and the two organisations hope to work in parallel for future ventures.

The Dissident also intends to promote Student Activism, publishing a Student Activist calendar of the term’s events in each corresponding issue.

Furthermore, Dissident Warwick hopes to experiment with design, but Rossdale is not specific, as the group is hoping for a new influx of members who will bring some of their own ideas. The new issue has been distributed in the Library, in the Students’ Union and in various faculty buildings.