Book Launch: Take Over The City w/ Neil Gray

​Join us for a book launch and discussion on contemporary urban politics with Neil Gray, author of the newly released Take Over The City: Spatial Composition in Italian Autonomy!

​More Details to follow!

​6pm - Doors Open

​6.30pm - Launch & Discussion begins

​Bar & Snacks available across the night!

​This is a Pelican House Social Club event. Please register to attend – this will automatically sign you up as a member (for free), and means you can enjoy drinks at our bar.

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​✊1970s Italy saw urban uprisings across its cities, as working class residents occupied their houses, hospitals and neighbourhoods. A wave of revolutionary activity, best known by the slogan 'Take Over The City!', this moment is a vital reference point for today's campaigns and struggles over land and urban life! In his new book, Take Over The City: Spatial Composition in Italian Autonomy (Common Notions 2026), Neil Gray offers the first developed account of how these movements were rooted in the shifts of post-war Italian capitalism, and develops a radical framework for understanding how militants have turned to the streets and social life to challenge the state and capitalist power.

​🏢This book launch will also be a space to hear from activists participating in a number of contemporary campaigns and struggles - over space, housing and community life - as we collectively make sense over the transformation of our cities and towns.

​📑The MayDay Rooms will also be holding an archival display of print materials that circulated amongst activists in these years of rebellion. As pamphlets, newspapers and militants moved across borders, a powerful network formed to support, and make sense of, working class-activity that was rapidly developing across Europe - come along to see this important collection of radical history!

​📸The book launch coincides with the opening of a new, vast photography exhibition documenting Critical Mass in London. A leaderless murmuration of cyclists that has continued to dis-organise itself for monthly ride across London since 1994, Critical Mass has collectively moved through the city's boroughs in opposition to the all-powerful presence of cars and in an act of controlled chaos. This exhibition on the first floor of the Pelican House event space documents the highs, lows, community, challenges and potential that the ride has experienced across the years.