Well, I’ve had my bedroom used as an office, and I’ve used my bedroom as an office. I’ve also used an office as my bedroom. I’ve also had an office which was previously the archive room for another organisation before I used it. It was small and cramped. I was there six years, maybe. I look back on it and I feel... I’m glad I’m not still there! There were lots of good points about it, but it was quite isolating. It probably fed into my strain of messiness.
I proposed a definition of the difference between a grassroots organisation and a non-grassroots organisation. Either the office or essential equipment storage has to be in someone’s bedroom.
The first political office space I had was the front room of someone’s house. No, that’s not true. Before that I used the communal facilities for students at my university. I used them for desktop publishing, email. Not very many other students were using it for political activities.
The latest political office space I use is a workroom on the top floor of someone’s house... from where I sit right now, I can see lots of newspapers and a plate with a half-eaten piece of toast.
The fact that there are other people working in and around is, I suppose, of great value. To me. It is very good not to have one’s office situated in one’s bedroom, not in one’s house. Because otherwise there is a tendency to spend all of one’s time working away at things, and there are other things I want to do.
Man, 30s