This
month’s listings update
NEW - STILL THE ENEMY WITHIN
UK 2014, Dir. Owen Gower. 112 min. (Speaker TBC)
Some 30 years after the end of the 1984-85 miners' 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 6 p.m., film starts at 6:30 p.m.
Cost: £5 / £2.50 unwaged or low wage concession.
Location: The Rocket Complex, London Metropolitan University, 166-220
Holloway Road, London N7 8DB
- - -
Still the Enemy Within is a unique insight into one of history’s most dramatic events: the 1984-85 British Miners’ Strike. No experts. No politicians. Thirty years on, this is th'e raw first-hand experience of those who lived through Britain’s longest strike. Follow the highs and lows of that life-changing year.
Using interviews and a wealth of rare and never before seen archive, the film draws together personal experiences – whether they’re tragic, funny or terrifying – to take the audience on an emotionally powerful journey through the dramatic events of that year.
Still the Enemy Within is ultimately a universal tale of ordinary people standing up for what they believe in. It challenges us to look again at our past so that in the words of one miner, “we can still seek to do something about the future”.
http://islingtoninciter.blogspot.com/2015/02/film-screening-still-enemy-within.html
http://the-enemy-within.org.uk/
Radical Science and Alternative
Technology: From the 70s to the Present.
at The Feminist Library meeting room, 5 Westminster Bridge Road,
London SE1 7XW.
Saturday April 11th, 1pm to 5.30pm,
Free/Donation. Venue is disabled accessible.
Speakers:
* *Introductions*: Hilary and Steven Rose (BSSRS), Peter Harper
(Centre for Alternative Technology), David King (Breaking
the Frame)
* *Energy/food politics*: Les Levidow (BSSRS), Helena Paul (Econexus),
speaker from Anti-Fracking Movement
* *Social control/surveillance*: Jonathan Rosenhead (BSSRS), Jim
Killock (Open Rights Group)
* *Work hazards*: Sue Barlow (BSSRS, women and work hazards group),
Eve Barker (Hazards Magazine), tbc
For more information contact luddites200@yahoo.co.uk or visit
http://www.breakingtheframe.org.uk
===============================
Wakefield Socialist History Group: Showing of
Wakefield Express (1952)
Saturday 18 April. 1 p.m.
Lindsay Anderson was a British feature film,
theatre and documentary director. He developed a philosophy of the cinema which in the
late 50's became known as the "Free Cinema movement."
"Wakefield Express" was commissioned by
the paper in 1952 to celebrate its' anniversary. It was meant to be a film
showing how the paper was printed.
But at Anderson's behest -as director- it became a
much more personal study of the communal life of a group of towns in
the West Riding area as the local reporters travelled around the area in
search of newsworthy events.
Wakefield Socialist History Group will
be showing the film as part of a DEMOCRACY AND THE MEDIA event at the Red Shed, Vicarage Road, Wakefield
WF1 1QX on
Saturday 18 April.
The event starts at 1pm and includes speakers
such as Granville Williams from the Campaign for Broadcasting Freedom and Don
Mort (father of NUJ chapel at Wakefield Express):
All are welcome. Free admission and
free light buffet.
===============================
David
Goodway speaks on
The Chartists Were Right: George Julian Harney's Late Journalism, 1890-97.
2pm, Saturday 25 April 2015
David Goodway is the
author of London Chartism 1838-1848 (CUP 1982), The
Real History of Chartism (SHS Occasional Publication No 32) and
editor of George Julian Harney: The Chartists Were Right. Selections from
the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle, 1890-97 (Merlin 2014).
Time: 2.00 pm
Venue: Tenants' Hall, Red Lion Square
[nearest Tube: Holborn]
Please note venue - free, all welcome.
A Paperback Edition of
George Julian Harney will be available in August 2015 –
Isbn 978 0 85036 717 1 £14.95
PP THE MERLIN PRESS Ltd. Unit 4F Talgarth Business Park, Trefecca Road,
Talgarth, Brecon, Powys, Wales. LD3 0PQ Phone: +44 [0] 1874 713171
http://www.merlinpress.co.uk
Twitter: @themerlinpress
===========================================
Reflections
on Social Change - Conference 15-16 May 2015
It is now possible to book your place for
free at the graduate conference 'Reflections on Social Change: Metamorphosis or
Transformation?' that will be held at Birkbeck,
University of London, on 15 and 16 May.
Keynote speakers will be Cristina
Flesher Fominaya (University of Aberdeen), Liz Kelly (London Metropolitan
University), Illanrua Wall (University of Warwick).
The titles of the panels are:
- Being the Change: Anarchist and Socialist
Principles in Daily Lives
- Resisting Transformation and Transforming
the Resistance: A Multidisciplinary Perspective
- Damaged Goods: Democracy and Human
Rights
- Subjects' Resistance: Acknowledging
the Specificity of the Contexts
- Is Social Change Possible within Neoliberal
Capitalism?
- Re-imagining Freedom and Equality in
Democracy: What Should Change?
- Is There Life after the Squares? The Arab
Spring, Podemos and Syriza
- Beautiful Resistance: Justice and
Aesthetics of Social Movements
- Art and Philosophy: Tracking the
Invisibility of Oppression and the Possibility of Reparation
=============================================
Fire: fundraising appeal from the US
Comrades at AK Press in Oakland are currently
dealing with the aftermath of a major fire. They're appealing for donations to
spread between AK Press, their neighbors at 1984 Printing, and building
residents who have lost their homes and
belongings.
Details are at: http://www.akpress.org/fire-relief.html
-----------------------------------------------------------
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
----------------------------------------------------------
Programme of
talks in April- May 2015
on ‘People’s History’ at
Manchester Metropolitan University,
part of the our Humanities in Public
Festival.
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 27 April 2015- The History of
People’s History: Ideals, Meanings and Legacies
• 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
All welcome.
----------------------------------------------------------
IWCE Weekend
Course:
Just a few places left for this Weekend School -
A World To Win:
Unions Past, Present and Future.
Northern College (Barnsley) Weekend
Course
29th/30th/31st May
£50.00 all in. Places very limited. [now oversubscribed]
To book a place email Keith Venables
And visit Barnsley's very own "The
World to Win: Posters of Protest and Revolution" Barnsley Civic Arts Centre, Hanson Street, Barnsley South Yorkshire S70
2HZ
Tues - Saturday until 13th June.
IWCE Future
Seminar:
Women Making History
Sat 13th June,
London
Offers of
short presentations are very welcome.
===============================
Working
Class Movement Library in Salford
Our exhibition The Great War:
myths and realities ends Friday, 24 April. It explores topics such as
Salford's response to the outbreak of war, the strength of the anti-war
movement locally and nationally, what happened to the campaign which had gathered
momentum by 1914 to get the vote for women - and the realities of trench
warfare. Open Wednesday to Friday 1-5 p.m.
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.
8th
Apr 2015 The People: the Rise and Fall of the Working Class, 1910-2010 -
Selina Todd
Based on first person accounts of servants, factory
workers, miners and housewives, Selina Todd's book
The People charts the history of working class
people over the last century. It has been shortlisted for Political History
Book of the Year 2015.
Review of Selina's book now available at
IHR Reviews.
Invisible Histories talk -
Notoriously militant: the story of a union branch at Ford Dagenham
Event
date : 22nd Apr 2015
Notoriously militant: the story of a union branch
at Ford Dagenham - Sheila Cohen
Sheila Cohen's book Notoriously militant,
based on original research and oral history, covers the history of Ford's
Dagenham plant - and its roots in Henry Ford's early US activities - from 20th
century shop floor struggles to the 21st century fight against plant closure.
Invisible Histories talk - From
Bilbao to Manchester: the Basque child refugees of 1937
Event date : 11th Mar 2015
From Bilbao to Manchester: the Basque child
refugees of 1937 - Charles Jepson
In June 1937 a large group of Basque refugee children arrived in Manchester.
They had fled their homes in Bilbao in order to escape the daily bombardment
inflicted by Franco's fascist forces during the Spanish Civil War. They would
spend the next two years living in a number of Basque Colonies in the
Manchester region.
http://www.wcml.org.uk/events/invisible-histories-talk--from-bilbao-to-manchester-the-basque-child-refugees-of-1937-/
<<
There is tons going on at
the Library in May >> too.
++++++++++++++
The Manchester Centre for Regional History is running a programme
of talks on ‘People's History':
Monday 27 April 5.30pm Geoffrey Manton Lecture Theatre 4,
Manchester Metropolitan University - The history of people's history:
ideals, meanings and legacies
Monday 11 May 5.30pm Geoffrey Manton Lecture Theatre 4 - "History is
the new punk": the International History From Below Network
Monday 18 May 5.30pm People's History Museum - Creating and curating
community histories - independent community-led archives and the ‘useable
past'.
The events are free and open to all. Booking and further details 
here.
The
2015 Blackstone Edge
Gathering will be on Saturday
2 May. This is a gathering of choirs, individuals and
small groups who walk up to the rocky outcrop on Blackstone Edge, picnic and
sing Chartist and other songs to remember the great Chartist gathering there,
almost 170 years ago. All are welcome to join in the singing or just
listen. No charge, no booking needed.
Meet in the car park below the White House
pub on the road from Littleborough to Halifax, ready to start walking up to the
Edge at 12.30pm. More information at http://blackstoneedgegathering.org.uk
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 Jaures, the Last Jacobin'
Monday June 1st – Parmjit Dhanda, 'My Political Race'
Monday June 15th - 'History of Riots' launch; Keith Flett and others
Monday June 30th tbc
http://londonsocialisthistorians.blogspot.co.uk/
At Bookmarks Bookshop on Tuesday 26 May, 6.30pm, £2
Polmaise: The Struggle For A Pit by John McCormack, first
published by Index Books in 1989, has just been republished on line (with
John's permission). John was the pit delegate at Polmaise, the last pit in
Stirlingshire. Polmaise had a deserved reputation for militancy and its miners
took an active part in the fight against closures from 1983 onwards. The book
is unique in recording this pre-history to the miners' strike in Scotland, from
an activist's point of view, and in its frank account of the differences within
the miners' union about how to resist the Tory onslaught.
'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.
=====================
Monday 13th April,
6-8pm:
CND PARTY AND
PROTEST, “VOTE OUT TRIDENT” PARTY AND PROTEST OUTSIDE THE MINISTRY OF DEFENCE
IN WHITEHALL
Join musicians, spoken word artists, and some very special
speakers to oppose £100bn for new nuclear weapons.
Performers include:
- Beans on Toast
- Drew McConnell (Babyshambles and Helsinki)
- Potent Whisper
- Zefur Wolves (Cian Ciaran of Super Furry Animals)
[Geared to the election but still...]
Called in solidarity with the Scottish
CND Scrap Trident blockade of Faslane on the same day and marking Global Day of
action Against Military Spending.
Info: CND, 020-7700 2393;
www.cnduk.org
============================
Islington
Against Police Spies:
SACK BOB LAMBERT!
Former Police Spy, Serial Liar & Exploiter of Women
Next Picket London Met
Thursday April 30th
12.00 – 2.00pm
LMU Tower, 166-220 Holloway Road, London N7 8DB
Islington Against Police Spies:
Former police spy, Special Branch manipulator, abuser of women, agent
provocateur, Bob Lambert is STILL lecturing at London Metropolitan University
on policing and criminology... [see previous posts]
Despite increasing anger and disquiet from local residents, London Met
students, and a fury of press attention around this campaign, London Met are
standing by Lambert.
Surely London Met is no place for a man who has
• Built a police career on lying, spying on political groups and community
campaigns;
• Stolen the name of a dead child to build a false identity;
• acted as an agent provocateur, actively encouraging people to commit crimes
so they could be arrested;
• has been named in parliament as having planted a firebomb in a store in 1987;
• started several sexual relationships & fathered a child just to make his
cover more convincing, (a child he abandoned with no contact for 24 years);
while all the time having a ‘real’ family back home;
• encouraged other police spies working under his supervision to follow his
dubious example – including sleeping with some of their targets;
• sent undercover police to spy on the families of racist murder victims and
people who have died in custody;
• helped to arrange meetings between police spies and senior officers looking
for ways to smear the family of Stephen Lawrence;
• passed on undercover reports on trade unionists campaigning for better
working conditions on building sites, which was used to blacklist workers;
…and much more…
This campaign is being organised by Islington Against Police Spies, a group of
local residents and activists:
"We are committed to putting pressure on the
University and raising awareness of Lambert’s past, until he is forced to leave
London Met."
