To explore, in no particular order..
Shuffle
Festival
behind St Clements Hospital site on Mile End Road. Programme from 24th July:
"The journeys, movements, resettlements, discoveries and upheaval of communities to new places and new lands has been the abiding story of humanity... In Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, where many people in East London have come to rest beneath the blanket of trees, we tell the stories of where we came from, where we are and where we are going."
Breaking Histories is a showcase of new insights into the past. It aims to get the public excited about history by demonstrating that historical research and practice is breaking boundaries, breaking conventions and should be breaking news! Come along and hear about the historical discoveries and projects that are uncovering hidden histories.
BREAKING HISTORIES TALK SERIES
TOWER HAMLETS CEMETERY PARK as it’s now
called, perhaps one of London's hidden gems in need of a radical history?
–
Saturday 1 August An evening walk round the Cemetery to end Shuffle.
======================
On the 6th August anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, CND has
organised a free screening of the 1965 BBC film, The War Game, in central
London.
Join us at The Light Euston in Friends House, where we
will be joined by Michael Bradsell, who edited the film in 1965, for a
post-screening discussion.
The BFI describes the film as 'a controversial and harrowing film
which, after the BBC had reluctantly allowed a cinema release, garnered huge
critical praise internationally, winning a number of prizes, including an
Academy Award.'
However, 'the nuclear war drama was withheld by the BBC - possibly
as a result of political pressure - and remained unshown for nearly twenty
years, finally being transmitted on 31st July 1985.'
2015 is the 70th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, the 50th
anniversary of the filming of The War Game and now 30 years since it was first
screened on the BBC.
- 6 - 8pm,
Thursday 6th August
- The Light
Euston, Friends House, 173 - 177 Euston Road
- REGISTER: The screening is free but please
register as spaces are limited.
======================
Film showing –
Rudolf Rocker
Sunday 5th July
"Adam Kossoff’s
documentary 'The Anarchist Rabbi' shines a light on a notable
figure in Britain’s newly resonant legacy of insurrectionism."
By Sukhdev Sandhu.
======================
Thursday
2nd - Thursday 9th July, 10am - 6pm, MDR Reading Room
Schooling and Culture Residency
Schooling and Culture was a collaboratively produced journal published during the 70s and 80s between a group of radical left educationalists and young working class school students in London.
MayDay Rooms currently houses a collection of the journals and this week long programme seeks to further socialise this archive. Since December 2014, convened by Russell Newell, a group of educators/artists/organisers and some of the original contributors have been meeting at MDR to discuss the
potential of reactivating the journal, what it would look like [...]
http://maydayrooms.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=071d5870fc99278166c35f19e&id=198c50fd9a&e=f1db704b13
MayDay Rooms
88 Fleet Street
London, EC4Y 1DH
United Kingdom
Tel: 020 3691 5230
http://www.maydayrooms.org
=======================================
Matchwomen's festival
The Matchwomen's festival is back and bigger than ever! With
speakers such as Caroline Criado-Perez, Kate Hardie, Sara Khan, Siana Bangura,
Shabana Kauser, Miranda Yardley and LOADS more as well as surprise guests.
Live music from Maddy Carty, Steve White and the
Protest Family and Thee Faction. Poet provocateurs Shagufta Iqbal, Janine
Booth, Tim Wells.
*Exclusive- The hilarious Week in Sexist News
will this year come LIVE from the Festival!*
This year we are at a new venue - Canning Town
Caravanserai - a fantastic in and out-door venue in a fabulous setting. With
hot food from Masterchef's Alec Tomasso, cakes, snacks and drinks all day and
night! **Under a fiver if booked in advance! Kids Free**
https://www.facebook.com/events/1603589999901409/
Saturday 4th July
2:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Address: 100-116
Silvertown Way, London E16 1EA
"In
the summer of 1888, 1400 women walked out on strike over management bullying
and appalling, hazardous working conditions. The women and girls working at
Bryant & May’s match factory in London’s East End shocked the world, and
ultimately changed it.
Working-class
women at this time were supposed to be seen and not heard, especially if, like
many matchwomen, they were of Irish heritage. Instead, the matchwomen paraded
the streets of the East End, singing songs and telling the truth about their
starvation wages and mistreatment by the firm.
They
marched to Parliament, and their strength and solidarity won them better pay,
safer conditions, and the right to form the largest union of women and girls in
Britain.
They
were an inspiration to other groups of workers up and down the country and
throughout the world. The modern movement for workers’ rights had begun, and
the matchwomen were at the forefront of it.
The
first Matchwomen's Festival marked the 125th anniversary of the Matchwomen's
Strike."
===============================
Dalston radical history walk
Thursday
23rd July
meet
6.30pm in Gillett Square, Dalston, London, N16 8AZ
including:
- housing
struggles and gentrification
- campaigners
against police violence and oppression who got infiltrated by
- guess
who
- anti-fascist
hairdresser
- centres
for community, for working class history, for refugees, for struggle
…
- culture
- riot
and
more....... Bring your own histories
==================================
WAKEFIELD NEWS: Opposing the National Front
WE ARE WAKEFIELD had a well attended meeting
on 8th July at Lightwaves Leisure Centre.
The meeting had been called because the Nazi National Front are planning
to march through Wakefield on Saturday 25 July.
The latest information is that the Nazis will assemble at the Wakey
Tavern (6 Lower Warrengate..next to Wetherspoons) at 11am and will be
marching to the "Springs" at 12 noon.
WE ARE WAKEFIELD have support from faith groups, community groups,
political parties, community organisations, trade union branches etc.
They are organising a protest demonstration and also an event in the
city centre through the day that will celebrate the diversity of Wakefield.
Their next organising meeting is on Tuesday 14 July at 7.15pm back at
Lightwaves Leisure Centre.
Those of us who attended last night were asked to publicise as much as
possible the events being organised to oppose the NF...please pass the message
on........
From Wakefield Socialist History Group
WAKEFIELD EVENTS
In the late 1830s and in the 1840s the
Chartists sought to unite a host of radical groups with their call for
democratic reform of the political system.
Their People's Charter demanded adult male suffrage, equal electoral districts,
annual Parliaments, vote by ballot, abolition of the property qualification for
MPs and also payment of MPs.
The idea was that a democratic electoral system would transform the composition
of Parliament. Once workers were the majority at Westminster the
Government would have to rule in their interests.
On Saturday 18 July, the WAKEFIELD SOCIALIST HISTORY GROUP
are holding a meeting about "THE CHARTISTS...AND THE DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT
TODAY." The meeting is at the Red Shed, Vicarage Street,
Wakefield. It starts at 1pm and admission is free. A free light buffet is
provided.
The speakers are Ken Rowley (ex Vice President of the NUM), Shaun Cohen (Ford
Maguire Society) and Paul Feldman (Assemblies for Democracy; author of book on
the state and democracy).
"Chartism is defined in terms of three great Petitions to Parliament -in 1839, 1842 and 1848. However there was a fourth, often forgotten, Petition collected in the spring of 1841.
Mark Crail (2015) points out that on eof the newly formed National Charter Association's priorities had been to continue campaigning for the release of John Frost, William Jones and Zepheniah Williams, the leaders of the Newport Rising.
In the early months of 1841 -whilst William Lovett and Feargus O'Connor were still in jail- Chartists secured 1,339,298 signatures backing a pardon.
The Chartist and Republican Journal reported that on 25 May 1841 some 18 stone masons from the "new Houses of Lords and Commons" carreid the "tun-like petition" along Fleet Street, the Strand, past Charing Cross and Horse Guards onto Westminster where it was "rolled onto the floor like a mighty snowball."
There the petition was debated. When it came to the vote it was 58-58. The Speaker voted against. The Petition had been rejected -but only by the deciding vote of the speaker."
And next month
They will be
organising a guided walk to commemorate the Kinsley Evictions in West
Yorkshire.
The walk will start with
short speeches at the "winding wheel" outside Fitzwilliam Railway
Station at 2pm on Sunday 9 August.
The guide for the walk
itself is John Gill and the route (approx. 2 miles) will be through Fitzwilliam
Country Park.
The walk will end with a
pint at the Kinsley Hotel.
Free bottled water will be
provided and stout footwear is recommended.
For more information call 07931927451.
================================
IWCE Events
Saturday
19th September
10.00 - 16.00 Brunswick, London
(tbc)
WOMEN MAKING
HISTORY
This session will begin with Researching and Archiving,
move on to Women, Work and Trade Unions, and
conclude with Lessons for Today.
Please get in touch if you would
like to make
a
presentation or just attend.
Jane Martin and IWCE Team.
World to Win
Events.
The Barnsley Residential was full
of life and ideas (and an Actions
for IWCE will be available on Website soon).
Edinburgh 17th and 18th August
Leicester 30th September Seminars.
The pamphlet "Class Struggle Adult Education for 21st
Century"
can be bought via the Website.
========================
Reminder:
A second showing of The Brixton Tapes has been arranged, due
to the popularity of the first night:
So, another chance to see the long lost and
excellent documentary on the 1981 Brixton Riots with an introduction from our
very own Alex (121/ Past Tense).
Tuesday 28th July
at Whirled Cinema,
259 Hardess St,
Loughborough Junction
London SE24 0HN
Tickets:https://www.whirledcinema.com
Doors open 7pm. Film showing 8.30pm. There is a
bar there so come early...
£5 non members £3 members.
=======================
The
timetable for Marxism
2015 in London from 9-13 July is available online - there are so many
critical meetings on offer on a wide range of subjects
==============================
“They’ve Taken our Ghettos: A Punk History of the Woodberry Down
Estate”
Craving Coffee, The Mill Co Project, Gaunson House, Markfield Road, South Tottenham,
London N15 4QQ
Exhibition Launch Party, Thurs, 2 Jul, 6-11pm, Free Entry
Food & drink available for purchase
Exhibition Runs 2-26 July
This exhibition brings together prints, illustrations, photographs and
text, created by a diaspora of punks who lived as squatters on the Woodberry
Down Estate in the Manor House area of London in the 80s and 90s. This show was
conceived in response to the estate’s current redevelopment, which recognizes
only consenting voices in its gentrification process.
This timely exhibition portrays aspects of an existence built on
dissent, autonomy and communality, as an alternative to the neo-liberal values
of ruthless individualism which held sway at that time. While the lifestyle was
far from idyllic, at times dystopian, at its best it offered unmediated freedom
and a real alternative to its participants.
Reflecting the principles of the community itself, no distinction is
made between professional and amateur art and writing. And while some of the
contributions are by known artists, writers and musicians, the rationale behind
the exhibition is to present an expression of a life lived from those who lived
it.
Opening party on 2 July, with the bar also open for craft beer,
cocktails, wine and food.
(
Facebook event)
==========================
WCML, Salford
Spirit of '45 exhibition and talks
The
Library's exhibition Spirit of ’45: from warfare to welfare runs until
25 September.
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 and the first
Saturday of the month 10am-4pm.
and events
Wednesday 8 July 2pm
Cancellation of Pat
Thane's talk
Many apologies, but we
have just heard that Pat Thane cannot come to give her talk tomorrow (8
July). We will be happy to welcome her
instead on Wednesday 16 September at 2pm, to talk to us about the 1945 welfare
reforms.
(Pat is Research Professor in Contemporary British History, Institute of
Contemporary British History, King's College, London).
Wednesday 22 July 2pm
Keith Flett talk - 'A History of 1945: beyond Ken Loach'
Keith is a socialist historian and a prolific letter writer in the British
press.
A Hundred in One Hundred Minutes
On Sunday 5 July at 2pm there will be a fundraising event
at the Library. A Hundred in One Hundred Minutes will offer us songs,
poems and tales from 100 years of working class struggles with ballad singer
Jennifer Reid and Manchester University’s Michael Sanders.
Price £10 - tickets to be booked in advance by emailing trustees@wcml.org.uk.
============================
Socialist History Society Public Meeting
Date: Saturday 18th July 2.00 p.m.
Diggers, Ranters and Fifth Monarchy Men: An Overview of the Revolutionary and Radical Sects in the 1640-60 Era
Speaker: Professor Bernard Capp, University of Warwick
The speaker is author of numerous works on 17th century social, political and cultural history including The Fifth Monarchy Men (1972); Astrology and the Popular Press: English Almanacs 1500-1800 (1979), Cromwell's Navy: The Fleet and the English Revolution (1989) and When Gossips Meet: Women, the Family and Neighbourhood in Early Modern England (2003 )
Professor Capp is a fellow of the British Academy.
Venue: Marx Memorial Library, Clerkenwell Green
Attendance is free of charge.
