Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Follow-up on Newington Green radical history walk & maps

(From Past Tense)

Thanks to all those who came on Sunday's Newington Green radical history walk, organised by past tense and other friends in North London... 50 or so people came, and although the walk lasted some 3 hours, most stayed to the end! Those who came were treated to a fun ramble through local radicalism, pioneer feminism, squatting, anarchy and nakedness and al fresco sex by the New River... (not literally, that last, though there have been some requests for re-enactments on our walks).

We hope to write the walk up for others to peruse when we get a chance... And we will definitely do it again.

In the meantime, for folks that weren't able to come, we produced an A3 map for the walk, covering some of the history we talked about... We are selling it for £1, (plus £1 P&P) - after we cover our costs, proceeds will be donated to the Mary On the Green campaign, who are raising money to erect a statue of Mary Wollstonecraft, groundbreaking feminist, who once ran a school in Newington Green. Unlike many others, there is very little public commemoration of Mary, perhaps because she was a revolutionary, who linked women's equality with fundamental social change and the abolition of inherited property, who made a political decision to live unmarried with her lovers, and had a child 'out of wedlock'...

maps can be obtained from us, via our website: 
http://past-tense.org.uk/

or by post, from
past tense,
56a Infoshop
56 Crampton St,
London, SE17 3AE

enclosing a cheque payable to Past Tense Publications

The Mary On the Green Campaign can be found at:

http://www.maryonthegreen.org/




Past Tense is now on Facebook

Past Tense has entered the early 21st century and launched a facebook page.
It's early doors as yet obviously, but you can check us out at:
http://www.facebook.com/pasttensehistories




.......................................................................................

DREAM TO CHANGE THE WORLD: THE LIFE & LEGACY OF JOHN LA ROSE

An exhibition

22 May - 29 August 2015


Islington Museum,

245 St John Street,
London
EC1V 4NB

The Dream to Change the World exhibition is the culminating event in the George Padmore Institute's five year project to conserve and open up to the public John L Rose's personal archives.

John La Rose (1927-2006) was a poet, essayist, publisher, trade unionist, cultural and political activist. He belonged to a Caribbean tradition of radical and revolutionary activism whose input has reverberated across
continents.

The Dream to Change the World exhibition covers in particular the period since John's arrival in London in 1961 to his death in 2006, with information on many organisations and campaigns that he was connected with - New Beacon Books, the Caribbean Artists Movement, Black Education Struggles and Supplementary Schools, the Black Parents Movement, the New Cross Massacre Campaign, the International Book Fair of Radical Black and
Third World Books, the George Padmore  Institute and many international campaigns.

The exhibition includes photographs, leaflet, posters, letters, recordings and film clips, plus a reconstruction of John's kitchen table around which so much discussion and planning went on.

John La Rose was passionately committed to racial and political justice, not just in Britain but internationally. The exhibition aims to draw out the lessons of JOhn La Rose's life - his methods and principles - both to
tell visitors what he achieved but also to give them the inspiration and power to dream and achieve themselves. His truly was a dream to Change the World.

During the period of the exhibition there will be a number of public events and also workshops for schools, which will be publicised individually and closer to the time.

This exhibition is being mounted by the George Padmore Institute in association with Islington Museums and Libraries.

It is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, the London Borough of islington, the George Padmore Institute and New Beacon Books.

http://georgepadmoreinstitute.org/dream-change-world-life-legacy-john-la-rose-0

Islington Council's website link to museum opening hours etc:
http://www.islington.gov.uk/islington/history-heritage/heritage_museum/Pages/contactusmus.aspx?extra=10

Contact: info@georgepadmoreinstitute.org 
islington.museum@islington.gov.uk

Friday, May 15, 2015

British Manuscript Cultures of the First World War

Next Monday (18 May) at 5.30 p.m., Edmund King (Open University) is giving a paper on 'British Manuscript Cultures of the First World War', part of the Open University/Institute of English Studies Book History and Bibliography Research Group seminar series at Senate House: details below. All are welcome: no registration required.

More on the series at:
18 May 2015 (Monday)
Room 104 (Senate House, Malet Street, London, first floor)
17:30 - 19:30
Edmund King (Open University)
'British Manuscript Cultures of the First World War'
Open University Book History and Bibliography Research Seminar
That the British volunteers and conscripts of the First World War made up the largest civilian army in the nation’s history is widely appreciated. What is less well known is the scale of the communications infrastructure necessary to keep these “citizen soldiers” in touch with the home front. Between 1914 and 1918, the British Postal Service’s Home Depot in London handled 2 billion letters and 114 million parcels addressed to soldiers serving overseas. Many of these soldiers were spending the first substantial period of time in their lives away from loved ones. Large numbers found themselves writing to parents and siblings for the very first time, learning the art of letter writing as they did so. Others for the first time in their lives started keeping diaries and journals of their day-to-day experiences. The war thus represented a kind of portal through which citizen soldiers, regardless of social status, were introduced to habits of self-recording through manuscript that had previously been largely the province of the upper and middle classes. Using specific examples drawn from soldiers’ letters and diaries, this paper will ask what it was that was unique about the manuscript cultures of the First World War.
For any questions about this seminar, please contact Jonathan Gibson, Lecturer in English, The Open University (jonathan.gibson@open.ac.uk

NB by the way: 15 May is Conscientious Objectors’ Day


Postscript: A correspondent reports:
<< The records of COs compiled by Cyril Pearce are now online via the Imperial War Museum:
https://search.livesofthefirstworldwar.org/search/world-records/conscientious-objectors-register-1914-1918

The website is an absolute *** atrocity.

One is obliged to register to see the individuals' records. Downloading the data appears to be impossible. Searching the data is clumsy at best; search by location doesn't work if you are not searching on a name as
well. Best results are got by using the 'keywords' search at the bottom left side. >>

Here, in preparation for Sunday's Newington Green walk, are search results for COs in Stoke Newington (probably many false positives):
https://search.livesofthefirstworldwar.org/search/world-records/conscientious-objectors-register-1914-1918?keywords=stoke%20newington
Further comment:
If you have a name you can view and copy a transcription of the record, after signing up (free). 
==============================

The Peace Pledge Union project on London COs now has an Exhibition up at Bruce Castle Museum in Tottenham. Jennifer Bell will be giving a talk on Hornsey COs there at 7.30 pm on 27th May.



Monday, May 11, 2015

Victor Serge, Anarchism and Translation

at the May Day Rooms, MDR Reading Room 1st floor, 
88 Fleet street, London, EC4Y 1DH

Conversation and Book Launch

Brooklyn-based translator Mitchell Abidor (Mitch) will prime a conversation 
 at MayDay Rooms on Friday May 15th about Victor Serge, and issues arising from the work of translation for Anarchists Never Surrender, an anthology that provides a complete picture of Serge’s relationship to anarchism.

Mitch Abidor is the principal French translator for the Marxists Internet Archive and has published two collections of his translations, The Great Anger: Ultra-Revolutionary Writing in France from the Atheist Priest to the Bonnot Gang and Communards: The Story of the Paris Commune of 1871 as Told by Those Who Fought for It.

 Anarchists Never Surrender contains writings going back to Serge’s teenage years in Brussels. At the heart of the anthology are key articles written soon after his arrival in Paris in 1909, when he became editor of the newspaper L’Anarchie. In these articles Serge develops and debates his own radical thoughts, arguing the futility of mass action and embracing “illegalism.” Serge’s involvement with the notorious French group of anarchist armed robbers, the Bonnot Gang, landed him in prison for the first time in 1912. Anarchists Never Surrender includes not only his prison correspondence with his anarchist comrade Émile Armand and articles written immediately after his release, but also material written by Serge after he had left anarchism behind and joined the Russian Bolsheviks in 1919. Here Serge analyzed anarchism and the ways in which he hoped anarchism would leaven the harshness and dictatorial tendencies of Bolshevism. Included here are writings on anarchist theory and history, Bakunin, the Spanish revolution, and the Kronstadt uprising.

 Victor Serge was born in 1890 to Russian anti-Tsarist exiles living in Brussels. As a young anarchist firebrand, he was sentenced to five years in a French penitentiary in 1912. In 1919, Serge joined the Bolsheviks. An outspoken critic of Stalin, Serge was expelled from the Party and arrested in 1929. Nonetheless, he managed to complete three novels (Men in Prison, Birth of Our Power and Conquered City) and a history (Year One of the Russian Revolution), published in Paris. Arrested again in Russia and deported to Central Asia in 1933, he was allowed to leave the USSR in 1936 after international protests by militants and prominent writers like André Gide and Romain Rolland. Hounded by Stalinist agents, Serge lived in precarious exile in Brussels, Paris, Vichy France, and Mexico City, where he died in 1947.



1978 edition of one of VS's novels
(Not the book that's being launched)

"Kronstadt 1921" from VS's writings was one of the earliest Solidarity pamphlets

Mitchell Abidor also appearing at the next in the series of:

LSHG Summer term seminars

London Socialist Historians Summer term seminars 2015
All seminars are held in Room 102, Institute of Historical Research, Senate House, Malet St. WC1 and start at 5.30 p.m.

 Monday May 18th - Mitch Abidor, 'Jean Jaurès, The Last Jacobin'

Copies of Mitch Abidour's new translation of Jean Jaurès' Socialist History of the French Revolution (Pluto) will be available on the night at a substantially reduced price.

Related event At Bookmarks Bookshop on Tuesday 26 May, 6.30pm, £2

'Every revolutionary party, every oppressed people, every oppressed working class can claim Jaurès, his memory, his example, and his person, for our own' -Leon Trotsky 

Jean Jaurès was the celebrated French Socialist Party leader, assassinated in 1914 for trying to use diplomacy and industrial action to prevent the outbreak of war. Published just a few years before his death, his magisterial A Socialist History of the French Revolution, has endured for over a century as one of the most influential accounts of the French Revolution ever to be published. Mitchell Abidor’s long-overdue translation and abridgement of Jaurès’s original 6-volumes brings this exceptional work to an Anglophone audience for the first time. Written in the midst of his activities as leader of the Socialist Party and editor of its newspaper, L’Humanité, Jaurès intended the book to serve as both a guide and an inspiration to political activity; even now it can serve to do just that. Abidor’s accomplished translation, and Jaurès’s verve, originality and willingness to criticise all players in this great drama make this a truly moving addition to the shelf of great books on the French Revolution. 

About The Author
Jean Jaurès (3 September 1859 – 31 July 1914) was a French Socialist who became the leader, in 1902, of the French Socialist Party, which opposed Jules Guesde's revolutionary Socialist Party of France. The two parties merged in 1905 in the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO). An antimilitarist, Jaurès was assassinated at the outbreak of World War I, and remains one of the main historical figures of the French Left.

Mitchell Abidor (Translator) books include anthologies of of Victor Serge, the Paris Commune, the left of the French Revolution, as well as the novella A Raskolnikov by Emmanuel Bove. He lives in Brooklyn.

Ian Birchall is a Marxist historian and translator, and author of numerous articles and books, particularly relating to the French Left and the Rebel's Guide to Lenin.

Saturday, May 9, 2015

Boycott Workfare conference: 30th May

Message from Haringey Solidarity Group:
<< OK, the elections are over...but the fight continues. So, come along to the Boycott Workfare conference on 30th May at the London Welsh Centre (details here) and let's start preparing to fight the onslaught that could be coming our way. The Tories might have a majority but so did Thatcher when she introduced the Poll Tax and look what happened there. It can happen again. If we stay strong.
Boycott Workfare are asking people to sign up in advance so they know how many to cater for and allocate space.>>

List of workshops happening at the conference
Organising against workfare in your town or city: 
How groups have had a huge impact and ways to get started in your town.
It can seem a daunting prospect to start a campaign against a workfare provider or business when sometimes there is only you and a couple of mates. What can a couple of people do? How can you sustain a campaign? Who's going to take notice of you? But, this is exactly how groups like those in Edinburgh & Haringey started many years ago, and these groups now having a huge impact against Workfare and sanctions. And it’s how most groups start. Just look at the rise of Housing Action type groups around the country. Most were started by a few people who knew each other. Come and listen to groups who have just started out and others who have been going for years. The workshop is for us all to share experiences, learn from each other, help those out who are thinking of setting a group up and mutual support.
Challenging sanctions and mandation
Over half a million people were sanctioned last year, and unless we fight every sanction we now risk three years without even a subsistence income. This session explores the key facts that people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance need to challenge sanctions. We’ll look at both the formal processes and ways we can collectively put pressure to overturn sanctions as well. We hope people will go away equipped to support each other to fight every sanction!
Knowing your right to Access to Work support, before going on Work Placements
We can use Access to Work as a stalling tactic for avoiding work placements. If disabled people need support to work, such as equipment or a support worker, or can’t use public transport, they can apply to Access to Work. Big employers have to pay themselves so may think twice about taking a workfare placement on if it’s going to start costing them.
Take part in this workshop with Andy Greene of Disabled People Against Cuts to explore ways disabled people can resist forced unpaid work placements.
Taking on Workfare
Together we have brought a flagship government policy to near “collapse”, but with all three main political parties and UKIP firmly committed to workfare and sanctions, we need to keep pushing. Take part in this workshop to share information on the shape of workfare at the moment: where it is taking place and the latest tricks of the providers. We’ll map out workfare’s weaknesses and find the places we can push together to bring it down once and for all.
Universal Credit: The time for welfare and housing campaigners to come together
Universal Credit is slowly being rolled out nationwide, Job Centre by Job Centre. People on “in work” benefits will soon face the same evil job seeking and sanctions regimes that those of us on JSA and ESA have had to endure for years. For people in low paid work, it could mean facing workfare or losing housing benefit. Could this be the present government’s “Poll Tax” moment when different groups come together to destroy a hated piece of legislation? Come and share knowledge about Universal Credit, explore ways to make sure people know what it could mean for them, and discuss how we can bring people together to put a stop to it.
Tactics to resist and navigate the Work Programme
A few different companies have contracts to deliver the Work Programme, the flagship two year workfare scheme. They’re all supposed to follow the same regulations. These can be used against them. There are lots of ways not to cooperate with the Work Programme.
Come to get information from groups and individuals about what Work Programme providers don’t have the power to demand, and the personal data they can’t force you to give them – and more on how to avoid and overturn benefit sanctions they inflict. We’ll hear from welfare action groups in Edinburgh and elsewhere about what can be achieved by insisting on your right to be accompanied to appointments.
This workshop is for everyone to share strategies for stalling and changing the activities that providers try to impose, and for resisting their demands about attendance, unhelpful training, and unpaid work placements.
Keeping Volunteering Voluntary: Workfare stops when there’s nowhere to send people
For workfare to happen, the government needs charities and voluntary groups to take placements. But more and more voluntary organisations are standing up and saying no. Over 550 have signed Keep Volunteering Voluntary’s pledge not to take part and the word is spreading. With most national charities now out of the schemes, we need to get the word out at a local level where charity workfare placements are still rife.
Come along to this workshop with Kevin and Penny from Keep Volunteering Voluntary to explore the key arguments to challenge the voluntary sector’s involvement, to share which tactics and approaches have been successful so far, and to plan how to take the campaign further and win!
Staying strong: Supporting each other through the emotional impact of punitive welfare reforms
When we work in mutual support groups, before we ever overturn a sanction or force a workfare user to pull out, we are already doing something important: sharing our experiences and offering emotional support. The reality is hard: the punitive culture at job centres, ever-present threat of sanctions, and the psycho-coercion of workfare providers take a heavy toll on people’s wellbeing. This session is an opportunity to share our experiences of working in groups dealing with these issues and discuss good ways to share support and look after ourselves and each other.

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Change of plan for next RaHN meeting

Apologies to anyone who’s been keeping the date, but the next meeting of the Radical History Network of North East London will not be on Wednesday 13th May as previously announced. 
Instead we hope as many as possible will come along to the Newington Green radical history Walk* on Sunday 17th May, and get together in a suitable hostelry (or similar) afterwards. Perhaps this timing and environment will be more convenient for some who don’t usually make it to our meetings – all welcome.

* NewingtonGreen radical history Walk,
Sunday 17th May 2015:
Meet 12 midday in Newington Green, London N1.
"Feminists and Dissenters, Anarchist printers and Squatters, Radical Clubs, and much more.
Bring your own bits of history."





p.s. Oldest Surviving Terraced Houses in England at Green Lanes

The oldest surviving terraced houses in England are on Newington Green...

Dating from 1658, 52-55 Newington Green houses are extremely rare survivals of pre-Restoration and pre-Great Fire town houses, and as such are one of the most remarkable groups of seventeenth-century buildings in London.

Grade 1 listed, Hackney Council's asset register lists them as "the oldest terraced houses still surviving in England".

During the decade or so prior to the American Revolution, the terrace was something of a hotbed of dissent as the resident of number 54, dissident preacher Dr Richard Price was visited by many of the American ‘founding fathers’ including Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams.

[See link for photo] 

AND
Here, in preparation for Sunday's Newington green walk, is a search for COs in Stoke Newington (probably many false positives):
https://search.livesofthefirstworldwar.org/search/world-records/conscientious-objectors-register-1914-1918?keywords=stoke%20newington

NO REDUNDANCIES AT LONDON MET

(That's the Uni, not the Police)

Defend Jobs — Defend Education!

Lobby the London Met Uni Board of Governors

Tuesday 12th May, 4:30 - 6 p.m.


London Metropolitan University has announced plans to cut 165 academic and professional support staff. The staff unions and students are fighting these damaging plans.
Join us on Tuesday 12th May as we call on the London Met Board of Governors to halt these proposals and join with staff and students to find an alternative plan to grow the university and create a stable future.

http://www.londonmetunison.org.uk/2015/05/lobby-the-london-met-board-of-governors-tues-12th-may-430-6pm/

http://www.ucu.org.uk/stopthelondonmetcuts

http://www.thestudentassembly.org.uk/news/save-london-met-university-stop-the-165-job-cuts-defend-education

http://www.londonmetunison.org.uk/handsofflondonmet/


 - Islington Against Police Spies Demand JUST ONE LITTLE SACKING…

Message dated May Day 2015
.

Ever since we (local residents and victims of undercover policing) began our campaign for the removal of former police spy Bob Lambert from his post as a part-time lecturer at London Metropolitan University, the London Met hierarchy have stood solidly behind Lambert. Statements have been issued defending his work, Tim Parsons from the John Grieve Centre (the department employing Lambert) has appeared on BBC London News extolling his virtues. It seems that Bob’s job is safe, despite his record of exploiting women, abandoning his child, acting as an agent provocateur to get others sent to prison, planting incendiary devices, passing information obtained by spying on trade unionists to private blacklisting firms, and sending spies to get close to grieving families like Stephen Lawrence’s.
Which contrasts heavily with the University bosses’ policies regarding other staff… London Met has announced plans to cut 165 academic and professional support staff. The staff unions, Unison and the University and College Union, supported by students are fighting the plans.

As London Met Unison comment: “London Metropolitan University’s senior management recently found in their own staff survey that 83 per cent have no faith or confidence in their leadership. Their response appears to be to sack as many staff as they can to change the demographics.”
Slashing 165 posts  - some 105 of the workforce - will seriously damage London Met’s ability to function; unions and staff have already been warning that morale is very low, stress levels high, and confidence in the management almost non-existent, due to a history of bullying and intimidation.
As a statement from union reps and local politicians pointed out this week,
“London Met has long played a vital role in providing educational opportunities for some of the most disadvantaged groups in society… Unfortunately, we believe that its proud record of widening participation and student centred teaching and learning is now being put at significant risk by the current redundancy plan and strategy of shrinkage being pursued by the vice-chancellor.
We further believe such staff cuts will only act to greatly accelerate the spiral of decline that has already significantly damaged the university's prospects over the past few years. The loss of London Met would be a loss for the whole of London, and, in particular, the predominately working class communities it expressly serves.“

London Met’s Management have, however, a long history of ignoring warnings from staff. For example, in 2012, Unison and the University and College Union strongly cautioned against entering into partnership with the London School of Business and Finance – the University leadership pressed ahead, with devastating results. An aggressive audit by the Home Office into London Met’s visa compliance systems, led to scandal, and the devastating loss of its licence to take on overseas students. Far from taking responsibility for their mistakes, the same managers have waged a campaign of fear against employees. Even the redundancy consultation process is being mishandled and made as stressful as possible. By day 19 of the statutory minimum 45-day consultation period, workers are still waiting for the detailed proposals for the removal of 150 posts to be published.
Unsurprisingly both Unison and UCU reps are among those targeted for possible redundancy. Union reps having already been subject to trumped up disciplinary proceedings in the recent past, university authorities are clearly also hoping to get rid of opposition to their increasingly unpopular regime.
Both UCU and Unison are balloting for strike a_ction to resist the redundancies. Many students are supporting them. As local residents, some of us students or ex-students of London Met/North London Polytechnic and UNL, Islington Against Police Spies support London Met staff fully in their fight to prevent the slashing of the workforce. The loss of these jobs would be a disaster for London Met staff, students, and our wider communities in North London.

We only want the removal of just one lecturer – Bob Lambert, whose dark past makes him, we believe, an inappropriate person to be teaching in this institution. However, maybe a management that defends this dubious character to the hilt, while plotting to devastate education at its own university, also needs removing…
In support of all those threatened with redundancy and London Met workforce in resisting these cuts,

Islington Against Police Spies

For more information see:
http://www.londonmetunison.org.uk/

http://www.ucu.org.uk/7495

http://savelondonmetuni.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.ucu.org.uk/saveouruniversity

https://islingtonagainstpolicespies.wordpress.com

contact us:
islingtonagainstpolicespies@riseup.net 

Friday, May 1, 2015

MAY LOOK FORWARD

NEW:  The Design Activism Research Hub announces its first exhibition, Radical Attic. 

The exhibition features social and political activist material culture, highlighting the histories and memories associated with the items, from Greece to Greenham, Animal Liberation to ACT UP and the alter-globalisation movements to the recent student occupations.

Private view was Thursday 14 May / 6pm - 9pm [missed it]

Exhibition runs 15-21 May

Lower Street Gallery
London College of Communication,
Elephant & Castle,
SE1 6SB

===============================
Reminder: STILL THE ENEMY WITHIN
UK 2014, Dir. Owen Gower. 112 min. (Speaker TBC)

Some 30 years after the end of the 1984-85 miner's strike Radical Islington are organsing a special May Day screening of Still the Enemy Within in collaboration with Reel Islington.

Date: Fri May 1 2015
Time: Doors open at 6PM, film starts at 6:30PM
Cost: £5 / £2.50 unwaged or low wage concession.
Location: The Rocket Complex, London Metropolitan University, 166-220
Holloway Road, London N7 8DB
===========================
The next event organised by the Wakefield Socialist History Group will be a meeting on Saturday 9 May, 1pm at the Red Shed, Vicarage Street, Wakefield WF1 (by the rear entrance  to Trinity Walk Shopping Centre).

The topic is "The Story of the Independent Labour Party -and the Lessons for Today!"

There will be two speakers.

The first speaker is Iain Dalton, West Yorkshire Organiser for the Socialist Party. The Socialist Party stands for a "democratic society run for the needs of all and not the profits of a few."  It is part of the Committee for a Workers' International.

The second speaker is Barry Winter, 
author of "The ILP: Past and Present", from Independent Labour Publications which is an "educational trust, publishing house and pressure group committed to democratic socialism."  

Kitty Rees will be in the Chair.

Questions, debate, discussion.
Excellent award winning real ale!


(Admission is free and there will be a free light buffet.)


Update: How It Went...

From Wakefield Socialist History Group: 
 
Twenty two people attended a meeting on Saturday at the Red Shed to discuss "The Story of the Independent Labour Party -and lessons for today."
 
The first speaker was Iain Dalton from the Socialist Party.  Iain highlighted how the ILP was founded in Bradford and argued that it was the "product of struggles that took place in West Yorkshire" beforehand such as the strike at Manningham Mills.
 
The second speaker was Barry Winter from Independent Labour Publications.  Barry spoke in particular about the life and contribution of Keir Hardie.  This year sees the centenary of his death.
 
The Group's next event is a guided walk around Radical Bradford on Saturday 13th June.  

=====================
Newington Green radical history Walk

Sunday 17th May 2015

Feminists and Dissenters, Anarchist printers and Squatters, Radical Clubs,
and much more

Meet 12 midday in Newington Green, London N1.
Bring your own bits of history.
Flyer featuring street art (Mary Wollstonecraft) etc.
=========================
Working Class Movement Library, Salford
51 The Crescent,
Salford,, M5 4WX

<< If you head to www.wcml.org.uk you can explore the new mobile friendly site. We’ve added a lot of information about library resources you can come here and read, on a vast range of topics.   And there’s a whole mini-site devoted to Ewan MacColl, just in time for the centenary event we are holding at the University of Salford on 10 May*.
We'd love to hear your feedback on the new site so let us know what you think. >>

Our next exhibition, Spirit of ‘45: from warfare to welfare, opens on Friday 1 May. Following the end of the Second World War the people of Britain elected a Labour government. It was a landslide victory. Seventy years later we recall the achievements of that government and explore what remains of its radical reforms.
Open during our drop-in times, Wednesdays to Fridays 1-5pm.

 There will be a series of free events alongside the exhibition:

Wednesday 10 June 2pm - Francis Beckett talk on Clement Attlee
Wednesday 24 June 2pm - Screening of the National Co-operative Film Archive's 1945 film Song of the People.
Wednesday 8 July 2pm - Pat Thane talk on the 1945 welfare reforms
Wednesday 22 July 2pm - Keith Flett talk, 'A History of 1945: beyond Ken Loach'

 On Friday 8 May at 2pm at the Library, Professor Sharon Ruston (Lancaster University) will give a talk on Mary Wollstonecraft and natural history.  She will discuss the way that Wollstonecraft used natural history knowledge to form her ideas for her feminist treatise, Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Admission free.

* On Sunday 10 May at 2pm in Peel Hall at the University of Salford, the Library and the University present a centenary tribute to Ewan MacColl. In Ewan MacColl, his life, his words, his music the man will be brought to life by former Smiths drummer Mike Joyce and singer-songwriter John Conolly:  [Update] A slight change in personnel for our Ewan MacColl event.  David Crellin (The Cops, Emmerdale) will now be participating alongside Mike Joyce and John Conolly – and Library Trustee Maxine Peake will be making guest appearances as both Joan Littlewood and Peggy Seeger! 

Tickets £12 (£8 students) are available from the University online shop. All proceeds to the Library.

Tickets £12 (£8 students) available only from the University online shop. All proceeds to the Library.

On Thursday 14 May the Library is again taking part in Manchester After Hours with a free Museums at Night event, Songs from Cottonpolis.  Come and enjoy the fine acoustic of the Library's hall - drop in any time 5-7.30pm to hear singing from the Bailey Sisters, browse exhibits and enjoy refreshments.


UPDATE
Sixth annual Frow Lecture
On Saturday 16 May at 2pm Frances O'Grady, TUC General Secretary, will give the sixth annual Frow Lecture at the Old Fire Station on the Crescent, just down the road from the Library (WCML as above). Her topic is 'The future of the left - where next for Labour, trade unions and the working class?'.  Frances will be talking about the need to build a new left-wing politics in Britain bringing together all progressive forces, including emerging campaign movements that energise young people.
Admission free.  This is not a ticketed event - please arrive in good time to ensure a seat.

Newsflash - change of venue for Frow Lecture

This Saturday's Frow Lecture by TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady will now take place at Manchester Mechanics’ Institute, 103 Princess Street, Manchester M1 6DD (entrance on Major Street), starting at 2.15pm rather than 2pm.  Directions here



Len Johnson 'Fighter'
The play Len Johnson 'Fighter', about the boxer and activist, returns to Salford's King's Arms tonight (11 May) until Wednesday 13 May at 7.30pm - tickets price £8 (£6 concessions) can be booked here. And a reminder that the play is also on at Bolton Octagon Theatre on 20-21 May - further details and tickets (price £10, concessions £8), here.  The play tells the story of a man who has been called 'the greatest British middleweight never to be champion', denied the opportunity to compete because of his colour. Len continued his fight against discrimination after his retirement from the ring, campaigning for many causes at home and abroad.
Stand Up for Peace
On Friday 15 May between 5 and 6pm there will be an event outside the Friends' Meeting House, Mount Street, Manchester M2 5NS, Stand Up for Peace, remembering the conscientious objectors of 1915 with poems, songs and stories.  All welcome.
'Prisoners of war' at the Hall o'th'Hill Camp
There will be an exhibition at Adlington Library, Railway Road, Adlington, Chorley  PR6 9RG from 15 May to 12 June, Heath Charnock's Green Men.  This tells the story of the 'prisoners of war' at the Hall o'th'Hill Camp, when over 220 Spanish anti-fascists and Republicans were interned in Adlington during World War Two.
Opening hours here
Raymond Williams Now
A one-day conference at Manchester's Friends Meeting House on Saturday 30 May, Raymond Williams Now, assesses Williams’s work and legacy. The event will feature a keynote lecture from Professor Tony Crowley and a wide range of papers. Artist Ruth Beale will present a film, ‘Performing Keywords’, first performed at the Turner Contemporary 2013. The day will conclude with a round table panel discussion on Williams and the contemporary Left. Further information here.

Registration price £30 waged, £15 concessions here (closing date Friday 15 May). 
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Talks on ‘People’s History’ at Manchester Metropolitan University, part of the our Humanities in Public Festival, continue...

 The ‘Future Histories’ strand will see talks from Prof Sally Alexander from Goldsmiths, Prof Alun Howkins from University of Sussex/ University of East Anglia; Peter Box and Roger Ball of the International History From Below Network; and Andrew Flinn from University College London. The talks will explore the histories, practices and ideals of ‘People’s History’:
 • Monday 11 May 2015- “History is the new punk”: The International History From Below Network
 • Monday 18 May 2015- Creating and curating community histories – independent community-led archives and the ‘use-able past’

 The events are free and open to all! Further details on-line at http://www.hssr.mmu.ac.uk/mcrh/2014/09/25/peopleshistory
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Public History Discussion Group
 Saturday 16th May 2015
Room 612
Institute of Archaeology, 31-34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY
 Come along for tea/coffee at 11am which will be served in the Staff Common Room
Room on the 6th floor- lift and stairs to all floors
Talk starts promptly at 11.30am

The River Severn: Alternative Journeys
Speaker: Linda Shapiro
"Following a river from source to estuary is the obvious way to do it, isn’t it?  My photographic study of the River Severn suggests that this linear view of the landscape has an impact upon how it is viewed by those familiar with it.  This in turn determines what is and what is not deemed to be important in the past."