Tuesday, May 28, 2013

The SWF breaks the news of Silvio Corio’s death to comrades in Italy


c/o Syndicalist Workers Federation,

25a Amberley Road., London, W.9, England

 [undated]  [January 1954]

M. Mantovani  

Piazza G. Grandi, N.4,

Milan, Italy.

Dear Comrade Mantovani,

                It is with great sadness that we have to inform you of the death of our dear old comrade, SILVIO CORIO.  He was 78 years old.
                He died on Monday 11th January. His body was cremated on 14th January at Manor Park, in north-east London.
                Apparently comrade Corio, two weeks before his death, received the news that his sister had died in Palermo.  As I believe you know, he had not been in good health in recent years and the shock of that unexpected news was too much for him to bear.
                Our good comrade Corio remained an active militant until the end of his life. On the 2nd of November he attended the sessions of the congress of our section of the IWMA (SWF), to which he had been affiliated since it was founded in 1950. He made several contributions to the conference debates, making practical suggestions for developing the anarcho-syndicalist movement in Britain. That was the last time we saw Silvio Corio. He wrote to our group in London  after the Congress, however, and we didn’t know he was shortly to leave us for ever. We retain the best memories of him: his exemplary life, his friendship, his profound sense of solidarity.
                We expect you will wish to publish an obituary notice in Il Libertario. We should be very grateful if you would do us the favour of passing on this sad news to the other publications of the Italian anarchist press, in particular Guerra di Classe and l’Umanita Nova.

In great sorrow, comrade, and with our fraternal wishes.

(Ken Hawkes)

IWMA = International Workingmen’s Association. (French: AIT, Association Inernationale des Travailleurs).
Original written in French (Translation: L.W.)

Reference for image of original at http://thesparrowsnest.org.uk (Ron’s Archive):  RON01914



3rd Letter: Syndicalist Workers Federation to Silvio Corio


Discussion of adult (working-class) education: ‘Popular University’, WEA, NCLC:-

On headed paper:

                Syndicalist Workers Federation                      

BRITISH SECTION OF THE INTERNATIONAL WORKINGMEN’S ASSOCIATION                             ORGAN: “DIRECT ACTION”               

NATIONAL COMMITTEE:  25a Amberley Road., London, W.9                       

18th October 1953

S. Corio

5, Charteris Rd., Woodford.          

Dear Comrade,

                                Thank you very much for of your letter 8th October. We note that you are wishing to attend, and we shall send definite information as soon as the arrangements are decided.

                We have discussed the matter raised in your letter: your son Richard is welcome to attend as an observer. It is understood, of course, that the proceedings of the Congress are a matter of confidence.

                I should have written before, but you may be interested to know that your earlier letter to Ken, on the subject of a Popular University, promoted a useful discussion among the members of the National Committee and the London Group. We agreed that our movement had not the means to start such a project effectively, in competition with the National Council of Labour Colleges and the WEA, both of which themselves did not have easy going. We decided, however, that our cause would be better served if as many comrades as possible did lecture for the NCLC, [choosing], of course, the subjects which were as relevant as possible to our ideas, e.g. Workers’ Control. At least one comrade present at that meeting undertook to do this, as he had at times previously. We were all of the opinion that the NCLC was a more useful field of action than the WEA, because the former had some influence among the most strongly organised and militant workers, and he latter was handicapped by the doctrine that education was something apart from the war of the classes, and must be unbiased’. I might add a personal note that I attended a WEA class at Plaistow, near my home, and found that this ‘impartiality’ seemed to imply, in their practice, repudiation of the class struggle. The audience seemed to be less class conscious than the average attender at a Branch Meeting of the Transport & General Workers Union. Do not let my personal fad dissuade you or Richard from carrying on what you are doing, though. I expect the audiences vary in different cases, and in any case, you know best, as you are doing it.
We were interested to hear that you had heard from Alan Smith; only recently he contacted us again, after quite a long gap. Do you know if he is interested in any activity?

I must close now,

With best wishes from us all,

Yours fraternally,

[signed]  Peter Green
Reference for image of original at http://thesparrowsnest.org.uk (Ron’s Archive) :  RON00471-2 (two pages).

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Silvio Corio and Son


Syndicalist (and North-East London) Connections
Recently found in Ron’s Archive at http://thesparrowsnest.org.uk:

Three letters, from/to/about respectively Silvio Corio, the Italian anarchist who was the long-term partner of Sylvia Pankhurst (see blog post here, September 2010), and one to their son Richard Pankhurst about his Conscientious Objector (CO) Tribunal, when he was appealing against conscription for National Service.
Thanks to the Sparrows Nest collective for making these generally available.

1. Letter: editor of the Syndicalist Workers Federation paper Direct Action to Richard Pankhurst.

25a Amberley Road., London, W.9
November 5th, 1952

Richard Pankhurst.
Dear Comrade,

Very many thanks for sending us the material on your C.O. tribunal.  After discussion, we decided that publication in the form of a letter from yourself might well have the effect of prejudicing your appeal, and that it would be better to put it in the form of an article.    We hope this will be o.k.

                Hoping you will keep us informed of developments, and that your appeal will be successful.

Every good wish, Yours fraternally,

 [copy unsigned] for editorial office

 Database reference for image of original at Sparrows Nest website as above:  RON00668

 Note: 

“... the procedure of appearing before a Local or Appellate tribunal could be a harrowing business for the one objector among every six hundred recruits.” – Trevor Royle, National Service: The Best Years of Their Lives,  p.46. (Paperback 2011; first published 2002,).

According to the National Archives website most National Service records, including those for appeals tribunals, have been destroyed


2.  Letter from Silvio Corio to the Syndicalist Workers Federation (SWF) about their forthcoming Conference, 1953, with mention of Richard Pankhurst.

On headed paper: New Times and Ethiopia News (Weekly). Editor: E. Sylvia Pankhurst

Oct. 8 ‘53
Dear Com. Green,

Many thanks for notification of Conference.  If you could favour me with the date when it will effectively be held I should be grateful. I will attend – if permitted – merely as an observer. And – if you have no objection –  I will take with me Richard. He is very interested in the Labour Movement of today. Before long his book on Wm. Thompson will be published by Messrs. Watts & Co. It should have appeared already but these people are so slow. He is now teaching Economics for the W.E.A. at Woolwich, thanks to his Ph.D. degree. He wants to know, at first hand, the opinions of English workers of today. A few days ago I had a letter from Alan Smith quite favourable to your work. You know him of course.
Best wishes,
Sincerely,                           S. Corio
Database reference for image of original at Sparrows Nest website:  RON01896
Notes:
The New Times and Ethiopia News was an anti-fascist and anti-imperialist paper run by Silvio Corio and Sylvia Pankhurst, originally in response to Mussolini’s attack on Ethiopia.

A short biography of Silvio Corio can be found at www.libcom.org. Also at LibCom: “The North East London Anarchist Group: A short history ... founded in 1946”, < http://www.libcom.org/history/north-east-london-anarchist-group> by Nick Heath. Mentions Alan Smith, Peter Green and Mario Mantovani as well as Corio himself.

Next Time: the SWF replies to Corio, and a sad announcement.

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Sparrows Nest: Good News for Radical Researchers


This is an excellent source for little-known byways of libertarian history.
Watch this space for some exciting discoveries coming shortly.

The Sparrows' Nest opened in December 2008. They held a very interesting meeting at the London Anarchist Book Fair last October.

Information from http://thesparrowsnest.org.uk:

Online Catalogue:  Online catalogue with searchable keywords: ANARCHIST BOOKS/PAMPHLETS - note this is a table of all content with fairly large file size (6MB) so wait to load before searching. Use search facility on your browser. Alternatively, Download/print catalogue ordered by author or by title (no keywords, around 700kB filesize). Last updated 19-April-2013.
Digital Libary of scanned publications: newest project scanning the content of The Sparrows' Nest Public Archive. Previously scanned in: the Soldarity Federation archive and the personal archive of one of its founding members, Ron  - converted into PDF format.
Plus scans of miscellaneous material such as unique local anti-Poll Tax campaigning newsletters, leaflets & press-cuttings. Select the Digital Library menu item for all this. Originals of digitised material are also available(in Nottingham)  but please note many of these documents are fragile and are kept in acid-free and lignin-free archive boxes and require special handling.

More details on their home page.

Friday, May 24, 2013

Meeting Report, Wednesday 8th May, 2013


Radical History Network of North East London

‘EVERYWHERE AND NOWHERE’: General Strikes, Solidarity Strikes and Industrial Solidarity
“The general strike is a revolution which is everywhere and nowhere”  (Fernand Pelloutier)

 
The 1926 General Strike in the UK  [By Alex - Full report of presentation available]

 
In May 1926 2 million workers joined the only General Strike Britain has ever seen. It lasted nine days, before being called off by the people who had called it – the General Council of the Trades Union Congress. The TUC leadership had unwillingly called the Strike, in support of a million miners who had been locked out of the pits until they accepted drastic wage cuts. The General Council had been forced into action by the overwhelming class feeling of the members of the unions, who both strongly supported the miners and believed a General Strike to be in their own interests in the face of an economic assault from the bosses and the government.

 
The Strike was in most cases rock solid: increasing numbers of workers were walking out, and towards its end it was spreading into other industries not officially on strike. But the government was very well prepared, having planned in advance - ensuring the amassing of coal stocks to make sure the miners could be defeated and industry could keep going, recruiting volunteer strike-breakers ahead of time, and setting up networks to organise nationally and locally.
 

But, afraid of the possibilities of workers escaping their control, and class warfare overflowing their very limited aims, the TUC bureaucrats tried hard to avoid the Strike, attempted to hamstring strikers on the ground from any autonomous action, negotiated throughout with the government and finally called the strike off, claiming they’d gained concessions, even though none had been won. Although 100,000 more workers came out on the day following the ending of the Strike than had previously been called out, very quickly most workers returned to work, facing worsening pay and conditions from employers made bold by the defeat – and leaving the miners to fight alone for six months until they were forced to give in and accept wage reductions. This sellout did leave a powerful legacy of bitterness. At the time, and ever since, the TUC leadership has been blamed for betraying the General Strike, and the miners.
 

Many on the left, including ourselves, obsess on the myth of May 1926 as some kind of potential revolutionary situation, thwarted by union leaders holding back class struggle. But maybe it wasn’t: few at the TIME saw it as more than an (admittedly huge) industrial dispute, limited to support for the miners. It’s possible that it was doomed to failure, given the conditions prevalent at the time. Although the situation may have contained a lot of ‘revolutionary potential’, this depended on the willingness, confidence and numbers of working class people prepared to go beyond the trade union structures when it became necessary. Whatever bitterness and anger at the selling out of the miners may have existed (and it was widespread), there was no critical mass of people able to translate it into maintaining or extending the Strike.

 

Recent General Strikes in Spain (and generally) [By Millie - Full report of presentation available]

 
Historically there have been two main ways general strikes have come about: They have been national events, pre-announced, or they have erupted, usually on a regional or city-wide basis… The latter type of general strike often starts in one industry, and spreads; it is more often spontaneous or organized from below while the first is more likely to be more top down. Quite often the second kind is provoked by some act of brutality, oppression or repression by the authorities or employers… Most of the city-wide or regional general strikes did have in common that they occurred at a time of general class struggle, upsurge of strikes, etc, they didn’t spring up out of nowhere…

 
In Spain, you often get small general strikes in various regions or cities; for example in Puerto Real, a strike in a car factory grew into a general strike in the whole region. More recently the Asturias miners’ strike sparked a one-day general strike. Spain really loves its General Strikes… There have been 3 there since the start of the current financial crisis in 2008, but before that, just in the post-Franco era, they’ve taken place in 1981, 1985, 1988, 1992, 1994, 2002, 2003, 2010.

 
Most of these have been called in response to labour laws, pension ‘reform’ or dole ‘reform’… Interestingly there have been two main exceptions, having more political than economic aims: the first was called against the attempted military coup in 1981, the second against Spain’s involvement in the Iraq war in 2003. [NB, remembering that the first echoes the general strike and popular mobilisation against the fascist coup of 1936 that launched the Spanish Civil War]. The latter strike saw a lot of civil disobedience, mass opposition – the strike was very much centred in community organising.

 
More specifically, the one day general strikes of the last three years have all been called ‘from the top’ by the two large union confederations, the UGT and the CCOO. But on the day, they feature a lot of mass grassroots activity.

 

OPEN DISCUSSION   These are points that came up in the discussion.

 
• It’s true that post-World War 1 there was a near-revolutionary situation, across Europe there were revolutions and uprisings, and a crisis in Britain. Does today suggest a re-run of 1926? Capitalism has changed a lot structurally, the industrial landscape has altered. There have also been huge changes in class composition, sociological changes, especially increasing atomization; people’s relationship to work and hence the focus on workplace struggles is v. different.

 
• Is there a way at approaching a pan-European General Strike? The European TUC structure poses some problems…

 
• What about a General Strike in the future? What factors will cause it?

 
• The General strike is a means to an end – we need also to think about strikes as occupations, sit ins, there is a long tradition of this in some places. How can we help to bring it about?

 
• Interesting that the first speaker linked William Benbow and Rosa Luxemburg. Benbow was part of the movement for reform that was betrayed by the 1832 Reform Act. Remember that at this time trade unionism was still illegal, trade unionists could be transported to the penal colonies. [Typist’s note: I think that the Combination Acts that banned trade unions or workplace organising had in fact been repealed a few years before in 1825, though it’s true that many aspects of organising could get you arrested, the Tolpuddle Martyrs for instance were specifically transported for swearing oaths when joining the union]. Benbow’s Grand National Holiday: in discussions around this idea, the question of ‘how will we eat?’ came up, and Benbow said “There’s sheep on a thousand hills”, i.e. let’s take everything from the ruling class. But recognizing that this meant civil war.  Rosa Luxemburg also saw things clearly – she made a point that a general strike has to involve unorganized workers – in fact she went further and stated that the struggles of previously unorganized workers would be a factor giving a mass strike real force and potential to transcend trade unionism.

 
• Has there ever been an organic general strike that has grown out of struggles at the grassroots? Yes, as an example, 1877 was given, a nationwide US strike wave sparked by one train strike. This movement arose in a period of intense social change following the US Civil War, in the 1870s many advances and opportunities were in the process of being closed down and restricted, and there was a large collective response. City-wide strikes (as mentioned earlier) were often sparked by dispute in one industry and spread outward. Even a shop assistants’ strike launched a General Strike in 1905. The 1905 Russian revolution to some extent was made up of an organic general strike, growing out of city strikes arising from immediate demands or grievances. For instance the sacking of two workers in the Putilov works in St Petersburg spiraled into a general strike in that city, and so on…

 
• Now, though, conditions are much less favourable. We’ve seen changes in work, i.e. most people being in temporary or insecure jobs, the [worse than] decimation of many staple industries, the huge decline in union membership, and a reduction in community, solidarity, the possibility of people standing together. These changes haven’t come about coincidentally, they have been imposed partly because of previous waves of militancy. It is important to recognize the changes we face now, but also useful to discuss and remember these struggles from the past, and learn as much as we can. It was suggested we can’t just build solidarity around workplaces any more, people don’t work in the same way, big factories etc .with a community around where most people work, are a thing mostly of the past for the UK and western Europe at least… Struggles outside work have risen in importance for many.

 
• It’s also true that many people aren’t happy to join in strikes that aren’t sanctioned by official structures.

 
• But expansion of strikes often takes place outside work now. People who aren’t necessarily on strike can participate in other ways. “Anything where people feel they can connect.” E.g. in Spain, Occupy have launched a campaign of local organising, “Occupy to the barrios”, rather than focusing on central points. [Typist: interestingly we had the same discussion in Reclaim the Streets in 1998-9, though those of us who argued that RTS should be concentrating on local struggles rather than building for big spectacular one-offs lost the argument then. Though that did lead to June 18th 1999, which some people rate highly. Hey ho.]
 

• How does industrial action spread? During the 1984-5 miners’ strike, there was massive support and solidarity but no other strike action in support.


• Neighbourhood level is the key to organising, local groups and so on, focusing on immediate action. The poll tax showed it was possible… There’s a need for groups of workers getting together locally.

 
• There really is no point in whingeing about the TUC, unions etc, we should just be organising for ourselves.
 

Here the discussion on the night ended… obviously we should be continuing to debate these issues as part of our movements etc…

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Ink Now: Posters, Collectives and Art: Tuesday 4th June

An evening of presentations and discussion about how posters have been
used in different radical, political, feminist, collective and community
settings. By looking at specific historical moments we hope to open up a
conversation about radical ideas and collective practices in the
contemporary art context.
WHEN: 6.30-8.30pm, Tuesday 4th June. Refreshments available from 6pm

WHERE: Lecture Theatre CR100, London Met University, 41-47 Commercial
Road, London, E1 1LA, nearest tube: Aldgate East, buses: 15, 254,205, 25.

Suzy Mackie and Pru Stevenson, founding members of the See Red Women's
Workshop Collective, which produced silkscreened feminist and community
posters from c1974 up to the early 1990s, will show poster images and talk
about why and how the collective was set up and the first 8 years.

Jess Baines (LSE/LCC) will be presenting her research on the history of
late 20th century radical and community printing collectives and co-ops in
the UK - including: poster collectives, service printers, typesetters and
print resource centres. Jess is also a former Member of the See Red Womens
Workshop

Dean Kenning (Kingston University and CSM) will be talking about the
recent show at Portman Gallery: ‘Poster Production’ where he worked with
art students from Morpeth School, Central St Martins and Reading
University, and with several contemporary artists to produce posters based
on different themes and according to various methods of working.

Rachael House and Jo David from artist run Space Station Sixty-Five on
posters and archives in the art space, including poster-related shows such
as 'Shape and Situate' 'Rachael will also talk about her recent
exhibitions 'Feminist Disco' and 'A Space of Potential' which draw on
feminist cultures'?

Chair: Anne Robinson (senior lecturer at London Metropolitan University
and former member of See Red Womens Workshop

Admission free and all welcome, but please register at:

http://inknowposters.eventbrite.com Email: anne.robinson@londonmet.ac.uk
for further information. Supported by The Facility, FSSH

Friday, May 17, 2013

Past Tense walk around the Elephant & Castle: Saturday June 1st

Past Tense publications present
Wild Walworth and Elephant's Arse:

Stumbling round the radical history of South London's newest property
hotspot!
Bumping with intent into the latest gentrifried developments.
Cursing together at various points along the way.
This walk, itself a re-enactment of a previous radical history walk, will
talk us on an amusing journey round Walworth and The Elephant. We will visit scenes of radical crimes, look for faded spraypaint slogans, hear of the dead and who dunnit, dig up past victories.

Includes anarchists,socialists, punks,radical printers, feminists,
anti-nazis and of course many, many more from all ages. We will also leave our mark on the landscape. Please bring chalk. Bring written curses directed at your favourite targets for us to incorporate.

Meet at 56a Infoshop,
56 Crampton St,
Walworth,
London SE17 3AE

1pm for look around the Infoshop.
1.30 Walk begins pronto!

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Independent Working Class Education: Rebuilding the Plebs tradition

Update on Programme:

May we invite you to this London IWCE Workshop?

Email to book a place: iwceducation@yahoo.co.uk

INDEPENDENT WORKING CLASS

EDUCATION: REBUILDING THE TRADITION

Saturday 1st June 2013

12.30 - 3.30

£3.00

Stan Newens on "The need for a Socialist Education today: lessons from NCLC"

Colin Waugh, Roshni Joshi and Rosie Huzzard on "Adult & Part Time Learners:

Organising Britain's Hidden Students and Student Workers"

and Chris Coates will talk about the TUC Library Collections

and then take us on a tour.

Keith Venables

The venue details are:

Room LCG-07 (Ground Floor)

London Metropolitan University

The Learning Centre

236-250 Holloway Road London N7 6PP

 

This is directly opposite Holloway Road tube station (Piccadilly Line).

The entrance is in Hornsey Road:


IWCE Project tries to
* develop a diverse range of education materials and approaches for trade union and other working class and progressive movement groups
* respect the role of the working class in making history, and in making the future .

 Seminar 1st June 12.30 - 3.30
@ London Metropolitan University
N7 6PP

if you would like to make a short presentation.

IWCE Project tries to
*        develop a diverse range of education materials and approaches for trade union
and other working class and progressive movement groups
*     respect the role of the working class in making history, and in making the future

Agenda so far
Stan Newens on Socialist Education and NCLC
Colin Waugh on IWCE and FE/HE
Chris Coates will show us around the TUC Library
 
Keith Venables/Colin Waugh and Team


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RaHN background notes: On 11 February 2009 held a meeting with Colin Waugh speaking on “The Ruskin College Strike,  Plebs League and Independent Working Class Education”, with these Notes circulated by Alan Woodward in advance:-

The historical events of a hundred years ago are still mulled over, and
concerned  the responsibility for  post-school education. In those years,
the unions in this country were extending  their activities beyond the
realm of skilled workers and seeking to ensure a proper adult education
for those many less skilled who missed out on secondary schooling. 
Many of those with high ability wanted university style education as
befitted  their capacities, in order to  take part in the expansion of
unions in workplaces, but this  corner was being  dominated by university
authorities. They tried to extend conventional education which directed
working class students away from the labour movement.

The few dozens workers students at Oxford resisted the takeover move in
1909.  They used the traditional methods and went on strike, making the
issue a national one. After a few months, when the academics did
not back down, the students established the Labour Colleges system.    
Classes were run in numerous cities, correspondence courses were soon set
up and the adult education system divided down the middle as the
conventional teachers  kept to their intentions. They continued with
the-middle-of-the-road Workers Education Association, the bitter rival
of what was to become the National Council of Labour Colleges, with its
own college in Tillicoulty, Scotland. This continued right up to 1964,
when the TUC took over the residue  in numerous cities.

The more aggressive unions, especially the miners, called on their
financial and political resources. They sent full-time students  to
the NCLC and their members received correspondence sheets and other
materials for a decade or so. Then the situation was complicated by the
 divisions within the labour movement as the political party adopted
conventional parliamentary procedures but many of the rank and file
supported the Communist Party and the new Russian society. Readers may
have their own views on the fate of the USSR but the struggle still
continues for education free from open capitalist influences.

Colin Waugh who is active on the Post 16 Educator journal, has written
a booklet to tell more fully the story above. Today education is not
totally subject to strong influences from powerful institutions in society
but many union members feel that the old master institutions are still
very influential. And there is still alienation. Many children grow
up without any personal knowledge of how, where, when and where  
unions can act to benefit workplace members, let alone the higher
reaches of current society.

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Meeting: Sylvia Pankhurst - Suffragette, Socialist and Scourge of Empire

Socialist History Society Meeting
Wednesday 15 May 2013 7.00 p.m.

Bishopsgate Institute, 230 Bishopsgate, London EC2M 4QH.

Nearest station:
Liverpool Street.

Tickets £2. Advance booking is recommended as places are limited. Booking at www.bishopsgate.org.uk or call 020 7392 9200

Katherine Connelly speaks on Sylvia Pankhurst - Suffragette, Socialist and Scourge of Empire.


Katherine Connelly is the author of a new biography of Sylvia Pankhurst, and will examine Pankhurst's unique contribution to a working class suffragette militancy, showing how her pioneering anti-imperialism shaped her whole life's activity. Katherine is
researching at Queen Mary on 'Karl Marx and Parisian popular culture in the 1840s'.

{Meetings organised by the SHS in partnership with Bishopsgate Institute are now part of the their cultural programme.}

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

"ADVENTURES IN THE WILD EAST" 7.30 SATURDAY

The story of the ETON MANOR BOYS CLUB

MICHELLE JOHANSEN
Bishopsgate Institute

7.30 SATURDAY 11 MAY

NEWS FROM NOWHERE CLUB
http://www.raymondwilliamsfoundation.org.uk/NfNHome.html

THE EPICENTRE
http://www.raymondwilliamsfoundation.org.uk/NfNfindus.html

     ALL WELCOME

Thursday, May 2, 2013

ALLIANCE OF RADICAL BOOKSELLERS RADICAL BOOKFAIR 2013

Saturday May 11th 10am-5pm.

Conway Hall, Red Lion Square,
Holborn, London WC1R 4RL

Please come along the first ARB London Radical Bookfair 2013  - an event
which will showcases the depth and breadth of radical publishing and
bookselling in the UK.

Lots of info up now about guest speakers and stallholders:
http://londonradicalbookfair.wordpress.com/stalls-guest-speakers/

Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/London-Radical-Bookfair/497414930304046
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ARBRadBookfair

Alliance of Radical Booksellers:
http://www.radicalbooksellers.co.uk/


Confirmed stallholders to date include:
BOOKSELLERS
Housmans Bookshop
Soma
Active Distribution
Bookmarks
Letterbox Library
Newham Books
Veggies
Workers Bookstall
Andrew Burgin
Freedom Press
Carl Slienger
Turnaround
PUBLISHERS
Five Leaves
AK Press
Verso Books
Merlin Press
Monthly Review Press
Zed Books
Pluto Press
Minor Compositions / Autonomedia
PM Press
Resistance Books
Past Tense
John Pickard
Exitstencil
Bolshevik Publications
Radical Routes
Anarchist Federation
Influx Press
Marx Study Centre
Trolley Books
MAGAZINES & ZINES
Red Pepper
Strike
Morning Star
Nyx
Peace News
STIR
Peter Lally
Hamjah Ashan
Julie Kane
OTHERS
Feminist Library

Update about Alan Woodward's legacy

Alan's FriendsTo ensure Alan Woodward's legacy is properly and respectfully cared for and promotedhttp://radicalhistorynetwork.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/alan-woodward-1939-2012.html

1. The Celebration of Alan's Life- Around 200 attended the post-funeral commemoration/celebration of Alan's life. It was a moving and inspirational event with stalls, speeches, banners and music.
- A Tribute document was distributed there (see webpage above), as well as a graphic pamphlet/cartoon of Alan by Michelle entitled 'The Man Who Wrote Pamphlets'.
- This was followed by an obituary on the Guardian website by Ian Birchall (with contributions from Dave and others).
- The Radical History Network of NE London reconvened on 6th February. There was a special talk/discussion by Alex in Alan's honour about the history of pamphleteering. This has been turned into a RaHN pamphlet (what else?!) now on the website at https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3YbS5W6XetQNzNWWHRobkU2VUU/edit?pli=1 . RaHN itself has a new 'core group' to ensure it and the website will continue to thrive. Next RaHN meeting is on 8th May and is about strikes.
- Dave did a talk at the Haringey Local History Fair on 23rd Feb about Alan's ideas and the last 30 years of Haringey DIY radical printing.

2. Alan's archives- Alan wished for his archives to be left to 'a libertarian organisation' and kept together if possible.
- Alan's large archive of materials in his house (papers, books, pamphlets etc) is slowly being catalogued ready for temporary storage, coordinated by Peter Woodward.

3. Existing publications of Alan's - Back in October 2012 Peter prepared a 2-sided A4 'catalogue' to publicise Alan's own pamphlets.
- Most are out of print, but some are at Housman's on display (and the bookshop is happy to continue to have an Alan section). We still need to discuss/ensure how they will remain in print, or at least get put up online as pdfs. Some of Alan's stuff is on the RaHN blog/site.
- We reprinted 40 copies of the autobiography 'Poor Boy's Tale' as a temporary measure and there are still a few available at Housman's.

4. Alan's future publications in the pipelineThere is further part-written or almost completed material which could and should be published at some time, e.g.
- the second part of his autobiography
- an almost-completed pamphlet on the London Workers Group, 1974-1983.

5. GenerallyKey issues continue to include where to house the archives for public access, publishing and republishing Alan's works, raising finances, the future of Alan's Friends and long-term decision-making and management around Alan's legacy.

Next RaHN meeting Wednesday May 8th, 7.30pm

General Strikes and Industrial SolidarityWood Green Social Club
3 Stuart Crescent, Wood Green, London N22 5NJ
[5 mins walk from Wood Green tube]

- What happened during the UK General Strike in 1926?
- What can we learn from other industrial solidarity strikes here and in many other countries around the world?
- What can be done to empower the labour movement now and in the future to take effective action?

Introduced by Alex and Millie - please bring ideas, knowledge and hopefully experiences (!), or just come and find out about the subject....

Also:
Future RaHN discussions and publications etc.