Don't Spy On Us: Day of Action

From Liberty email notification 

It may be hard to believe, but it’s been nearly a year since whistleblower Edward Snowden lifted the lid on the NSA and GCHQ’s breathtaking blanket surveillance. To mark the anniversary, the Don’t Spy On Us coalition – which Liberty is a member of – invites you to join the fight against out-of-control snooping at the biggest privacy event of the year.

WHEN: Saturday, June 7 at 1.15pm
WHERE: Shoreditch Town Hall, 380 Old Street, London, EC1V 9LT

Speakers lined up for the Day of action include our very own Director, Shami Chakrabarti, The Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, actor Stephen Fry, leading human rights lawyer Helena Kennedy and many more.

The mass snooping our securocrats have been indulging in is a blatant violation of our right to a private life under Article 8 of the Human Rights Act. Hoovering up the communications of innocent people – without judicial oversight or effective safeguards – is a breach of trust on the grandest scale imaginable.

So join us on June 7 and make your voice heard in the fight for surveillance reform.

Tickets are just £5. They’re already selling very quickly, so please get yours before it’s too late.

Don’t Spy On Us is a coalition of leading civil liberties groups in the UK campaigning for reform of surveillance legislation and effective judicial oversight: Open Rights Group, English PEN, Liberty, Privacy International, Big Brother Watch, ARTICLE19. Find out more.

Thanks for your continued support.

Independent Working Class Education event: Birmingham 14th June

Saturday 14th June. 10.30 - 3.30

School of Education

BIRMINGHAM University [G3 North East Car Park (free)] 

PLEASE BRING SANDWICHES; ORGANISERS WILL PROVIDE DRINKS. 

The day will have two focuses: 

1. A short discussion about the ongoing development of the IWCE Manifesto (http://iwceducation.co.uk/index.php/news-and-features/59-draft-iwce-manifesto-consultation) and 

2. Presentations by organisers of radical informal education projects in England today  

In the past five years or so, a number of radical informal and trade union education projects have been developing. Talks will be given by organisers of four such projects: (Birmingham Radical EDucation, BRE(A)D), the General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU), the Independent Working Class Education network (IWCE) and People’s Political Economy (PPE).   

Speakers will address sets of questions so that there can be a discussion afterwards of their commonalities and differences and the factors that contribute to their success and that prevent them from a fuller realization of their intentions. 

This part of the day has two aims: a. provide information about these projects to others who might want to join them or create sister projects in their own region and b. networking, skills and resources sharing and, potentially, building up possibilities for future collaborations between these and other groups. 

Those interested in participating in this event should contact: Joyce Canaan,jecanaan@gmail.com.

Commemorative Guided Walk: Kinsley Evictions

An update regarding events organised by Wakefield Socialist History Group.

The Kinsley Evictions Commemorative Guided Walk is being held this Sunday (8 June) in West Yorkshire.
It starts at 2pm at the Winding Wheel at the end of Railway Terrace, Fitzwilliam (just outside the entrance to Fitzwilliam Railway Station).
The Guide is local socialist historian John Gill.
The route takes in part of what is now Fitzwilliam Country Park and ends with a pint (or two) at the Kinsley Hotel.
All are welcome and there is no charge.

A reminder also that we have an event at the Red Shed, Vicarage Street, Wakefield on Saturday 21 June, 2-4pm. It is titled, "Hurrah to the Luddites: Challenging the Myths About Luddism."  We have two speakers...Ken Rowley (ex Vice President of the National Union of Mineworkers) and Shaun Cohen (from the Ford-Maguire Society).  Again there is no charge and a free buffet is provided.

[Original post:-]

In 1905 over a hundred miners and their families in West Yorkshire were evicted from colliery owned housing during a protracted pay dispute.  The event became known as the KINSLEY EVICTIONS and attracted national attention as the early labour movement rallied in the miners' support.

On Sunday 8 June we will be holding a Commemorative Guided Walk which will start at 2pm at the winding wheel outside Fitzwilliam Railway Station.  The route will take in part of what is now Fitzwilliam Country Park and end with a pint at Kinsley Hotel.

The event is organised by Wakefield Socialist History Group.  The guide is John Gill.   All are welcome and there is no charge.

Please support this event.

 

Left Forum in NYC: 30 May – 1 June 2014

From PM Press email notification

Once again, Left Forum is happening. This year at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York. A unique phenomenon in the U.S. and the world, Left Forum convenes the largest annual conference of a broad spectrum of left and progressive intellectuals, activists, academics, organizations and the interested public.

Friday, May 30th - Sunday, June 1st

John Jay College of Criminal Justice, at the City University of New York

540 West 59 Street (59th and 10th Ave), New York, NY 10019 

This year's theme is Reform and/or Revolution, Imagining a World with Transformative Justice.

Some “revolutionary panels with PM Press authors” are listed below, with selected participants.

PANELS

SATURDAY, MAY 31ST

Session 1, Room 9.681 on Sat 10:00am - 11:50am Music, Social Movements and Revolution

Mat Callahan, editor and composer for Songs of Freedom: The James Connolly Songbook and music CD. 

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Session 1, Room 1.129, Sat 10:00am - 11:50am Buddhism, Radical Critique and Revolutionary Praxis

John P. Clark, co-editor of Anarchy, Geography, Modernity: Selected Writings of Elisee Reclus

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 Session 1, Room 1.76, Sat 10:00am - 11:50am

Criminalizing Survival: Debt and Prison in the Age of Austerity

________________________

Session 1, Room 1.93 on Sat 10:00am - 11:50am

 Revolutionary Animism

 ________________________

Session 1, Room 1.90 on Sat 10:00am - 11:50am

Active Nonviolence as a Tool for Creative Social Change Today

Matt Meyer, co-editor of We Have Not Been Moved: Resisting Racism and Militarism in 21st Century America, editor of Let Freedom Ring: A Collection of Documents from the Movements to Free U.S. Political Prisoners

________________________

Session 2, Room 1.76 on Sat 12:00pm - 01:50pm Why Are Women In Prison?: The Politics of Risk

Vikki Law, author of Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles Of Incarcerated Women, 2nd Edition, and co-editor of Don't Leave Your Friends Behind: Concrete Ways to Support Families in Social Justice Movements and Communities

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Session 3, Room 3.76 on Sat 03:20pm - 04:50pm

Campaign for Oscar Lopez Rivera, contributors to Oscar Lopez Rivera: Between Torture and Resistance.

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Session 3, Room 1.101 on Sat 03:20pm - 04:50pm

Angela Davis, Left Forum keynote speaker and lecturer on The Meaning of Freedom, and Harry Belafonte at Occupy Wall Street, October 28 and 29, 2011: Film and Group Discussion:

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Session 3, Room 8.69 on Sat 03:20pm - 04:50pm

Radical Perspectives on Intellectual Property

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 Session 3, Room 1.90 on Sat 03:20pm - 04:50pm

Hey Activists, Read This!: Why Progressives Should Read More Fiction

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 Session 4, Room 1.89 on Sat 05:00pm - 06:50pm

Revolution or Omnicide: Our Choice

with Stephanie McMillan, author and artist of The Knitting Circle Rapist Annihilation Squad, Earth at Risk: Building a Resistance Movement to Save the Planet, and Mischief in the Forest: A Yarn Yarn:

________________________ ________________________

SUNDAY, JUNE 1ST

Mat Callahan, editor and composer for Songs of Freedom: The James Connolly Songbook and CD, will be performing at the Pete Seeger Commemoration Concert, a celebration of his life, music and politics, Sunday evening at the Black Box Theater.

________________________ 

 Session 5, Room L2.82 on Sun 10:00am - 11:50am

Comics for Revolution

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 Session 5, Room 1.101 on Sun 10:00am - 11:50am

No More Prisons, No More Jails: Update on Campaigns in California and around the US

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 Session 6, Room 1.81 on Sun 12:00pm - 01:50pm

One Year after the Rana Plaza Collapse: Where Do We Go from Here

Efadul Huq, Bangladesh Worker Solidarity Network

Russ Davis, Jobs With Justice

________________________

 Session 6, Room 1.109 on Sun 12:00pm - 01:50pm

The Global Minimum Wage Struggle

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Session 7, Room L.76 on Sun 03:40pm - 05:40pm

The Road to Change: The Struggle to Free All Political Prisoners/Freedom Fighters/Revolutionists/Human Rights Defenders - Nothing Has Changed

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 Session 7, Room 1.103 on Sun 03:40pm - 05:40pm

Women, Trans, Aging Prisoners and FIPs

Donna Hill Fight for Lifers and Women and Trans Prisoner Defense Committee

Victoria Law author of Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women

Rev. Edward Pinkney Black Autonomy Network (BANCO)

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 Session 7, Room 3.78 on Sun 03:40pm - 05:40pm

Confronting Global Environmental Catastrophe: Anarchist Analyses of Collapse

John Clark New Orleans Free School Network

                ________________________

See more information about Left Forum HERE and check out other PM author, editor, and tabling events HERE. (Or RaHN could forward the full PM email message on request).

Can't Make the Conference? - 25% OFF PM Press books and eBooks featured on Left Forum panels on webstore with coupon code: Left Forum.

Descendants will honour the conscientious objectors of the First World War

From a FIRST WORLD WAR PEACE FORUM Press Release

Thursday 15 May 2014, London

Descendants of 50 First World War conscientious objectors will take part in this year’s International Conscientious Objectors Day commemoration in Tavistock Square, London WC1, on 15 May. In all there were an estimated 20,000 COs to the First World War, many motivated by religious faith, many by political and socialist convictions, and often by a combination of these beliefs. Some of these descendants are daughters and sons of men who endured repeated imprisonment and force-feeding for their anti-war convictions, or worked with Friends’ Ambulance and War Victim Relief services. 

The ceremony at 12 noon will include the naming of each CO by family members who will bring their photographs and lay flowers at the granite memorial to conscientious objectors.

To include a speaker from a German branch of War Resisters’ International, and one from Quaker Peace and Social Witness who will talk about how conscientious objectors are still being imprisoned in some countries today.

The CO ceremony is being organised by the First World War Peace Forum – a coalition made up of Conscience, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Network for Peace, Pax Christi, Peace News, Peace Pledge Union, Quaker Peace and Social Witness, the Right to Refuse to Kill group and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

 

Some related London events on 15 May (see also previous post)

10.30am – Launch of Quaker online project ‘The White Feather Diaries’ - telling the stories of Quaker First World War COs - which will go live on 4 August 2014.  Friends House, opposite Euston Station, NW1 2BJ

11.30am to 3pm there will be an exhibition in Friends House Library of rare artefacts and diaries belonging to imprisoned COs.

4.30pm – launch of two books about the First World War conscientious objectors will take place in Friends House Library:

Comrades in Conscience: the story of an English Community’s Opposition to the Great War by Cyril Pearce (c.pearce@btinternet.com)

and Objection Overruled: Conscription and Conscience in the First World War by David Boulton (Quaker History Society).

Events: Opposition to the First World War

Three events at Housmans bookshop related to the first world war & opposition to it.

More info at http://www.housmans.com/events.php

Thursday 15th May, wine reception 6.30pm, talks from 7pm, free entry

INTERNATIONAL CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS’ DAY EVENT:

 ‘Objection Overruled’ and ‘Comrades in Conscience’ with David Boulton and Cyril Pearce

An event to commemorate International Conscientious Objectors’ Day event, remembering the actions of those who opposed and resisted the first world war, as told in new editions of these two important books.

There will also be CO commemoration events all day in Tavistock Square and Friends House, where the Quaker Centre Cafe and Bookshop will be open.

ANNUAL CEREMONY TO MARK INTERNATIONAL CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS' DAY will take place around the rock dedicated to all COs in Tavistock Square, London WC1, at NOON ON THURSDAY 15TH MAY 2014.   The rock is at the Euston Road end of the square, near to the BMA building. 

This year we shall be remembering in particular those who were Conscientious Objectors during World War One from 1916-1919 - a large number of their descendants have been traced and will be present at the ceremony.   Everyone is welcome to join in. 

The ceremony will last about one hour and be followed by a picnic in the square (bring your own picnic!)

Wednesday 11th June, 7pm
 ‘Sylvia Pankhurst, Suffrage, and the Battle for the Census’ with Jill Liddington and Katherine Connelly. Entry £3, redeemable against any purchase.

A joint book event for two titles considering two aspects of Suffragette history: Connelly’s books looks in detail at the life of Sylvia Pankhurst, whilst Liddington’s book tells the story of the Suffragettes’ controversial campaign to boycott the 1911 census.

Wednesday 18th June, 7pm ‘Writings against the First World War’ with Bruce Kent and A.W. Zurbrugg. Entry £3, redeemable against any purchase.

Our guests present the works of those who opposed the First World War and who wrote and published in order to convince others of its horrors, with particular reference to newly published books ‘Not Our War: Writings against the First World War’ and ‘War against War!’

Housmans bookshop is located at 5, Caledonian Road, London, near King’s Cross.