Anarchist Festival 2019
Following the success of last year’s decentralised anarchist festival, we’re going to give it another try, but this time with events not just in London, but across the UK and Ireland. The idea is simple: groups put on their own programme of anarchist events, concentrating on the dates of the long weekend of 31st May to the 2nd June 2019, and the programme is collated by us on our website and social media. www.anarchistfestival.wordpress.com;
If your event is in London and you would like it included in the programme please let us know about it by emailing us at anarchistfestival@riseup.net.
If your event is NOT in London (anywhere else in the UK or Ireland) and you would like it included in the programme please let us know about it by emailing us at nationalevents@riseup.net.
Please also contact us at those email addresses if you have a venue for use, but no events in mind.
DEADLINE ALERT! Please be sure to submit your event by 1st May 2019 for inclusion in the programme. Any event submitted later than this date will not be included.
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COMMEMORATION, CONFLICT and CONSCIENCE FESTIVAL
BRISTOL 27-28 APRIL 2019
COMMEMORATION, CONFLICT and CONSCIENCE is a year-long project, which culminates in a national festival in Bristol, 27-28 April 2019. The project looks at ‘hidden’ or lesser known stories of the First World War, legacy, peace-building & alienation from commemoration. We are: uniting existing community groups and researchers, focusing on their work to date & generating new research; showcasing existing artistic work and performances and fostering new creative projects.
FULL PROGRAMME TO BE AVAILABLE SOON.
CONFIRMED FESTIVAL ACTIVITIES
To date the programme includes: a puppet walk; films; Shot at Dawn campaigners; history and art exhibitions; stalls; local community projects from around the UK; Cyril Pearce; Veterans for Peace; CND; Peace Pledge Union; Peace Pledge Union – CO website; Julian Putkowski; Researching the COs; song and music; interviews; talks; performances; workshops; and the chance for adults and children to try wood block printing.
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Gems in Sparrows' Nest
Sparrows' Nest have announced a swathe of new additions to their digital library as an
"eclectic mix, containing e.g. Punk Zines and heaps of great local(ish) materials. Prominent amongst the latter are long running LGBTQ+ papers and newssheets from the 1980s and 1990s as well as Nottingham CND materials from the 1980s, documenting e.g. blockades and other actions in and around the military bases in Chilwell and Molesworth."
Headings Include: Assorted local newspapers, bulletins etc. (Anarchist and otherwise); Local(ish) CND/anti-militarist materials; Local LGBTQ+ newspapers etc.;Music Fanzines etc.
More at http://thesparrowsnest.org.uk/
These few highlights in particular may be of interest to radical historians:
Anarchy Journal, First Series (edited by Colin Ward) - 17 issues ranging in date from 1961-1969
London Workers Group Bulletin #10 and #11 (1981)
The Out House Project Newsletter – The Newsletter of the Nottingham Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Community Centre Cooperative (1995)
The Unknown Deserter - Nine Drawings by Clifford Harper -
"The brief war of private Aby Harris, n0.11-1799, llth
Battalion Middlesex Regiment, described in nine drawings
by Clifford Harper, and dedicated to all deserters everywhere."
"These drawings first appeared in Solidarity Journal number 22
winter 1989."
[Not the same Solidarity as the pamphlet above].
Resistance – Magazine of the Committee of 100 National Committee:
4 (4)
1967.
A bumper 36-page issue, with a variety of articles on issues and debates of the day.
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Also notified by Sparrows:
States of Independence http://www.statesofindependence.co.uk/
Saturday 23 March 2019
Free of charge | 10.30am - 4.30pm | Open to all
The tenth States of Independence will take place on Saturday 23 March 2019 at Clephan Building, De Montfort University, Leicester.
The full 2019 programme will be published when it has been finalised. In the meantime, events booked so far are listed
here.
States also includes a free bookfair representing dozens of publishers from the region and beyond.
2.30-3.15 The Spanish Revolution #1
Iain McKay takes us back to Spain in the 1930s where anarchists occupied the factories and the land, to make a revolution at the same time as fighting Franco's fascists. And within that revolution, the women of
Mujeres Libres fought also for the liberation of women.
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Saturday 27th April, 2019 11-4 pm
In the 1970s, DIY print media met Punk and Anarchism, and the Anarcho-Punk Fanzine was born. The print quality may have been patchy, but the passion and commitment are undeniable. This hands-on workshop explores the politics and the music through zines and a punk soundtrack, courtesy of The Sparrows’ Nest Library and Archive, in corporation with the Notts Zine Library.
Free event. Venue wheelchair accessible. If you already know that you want to attend, please let us know by email so we can get an idea about numbers.
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LGBTQ Online Safety Guide
Notification of new resource relevant to several previous posts:
I'd like to suggest that you also share an important LGBTQ online safety guide which came out recently. Did you know that 73% of LGBTQs have been harassed online due to sexual orientation or gender identity? This guide aims to empower them and give them the tools to protect themselves online.
I like how they give a few tips and practical suggestions for each situation.
[Name and email supplied]
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Offer of new resources
Papers on Housing in Russia
An email correspondent has recently prepared two papers on housing in Russia:
- one on housing before the revolution (approx.10 pages inc.reading list)
- one on public housing 1917-1933 (approx.33 pages inc.reading list).
and has kindly offered to post a copy of each of these to interested people.
A contibution of just £1 towards costs has been suggested.
Enquiries can be passed on via the RaHN email: radicalhistorynetwork@gmail.com
==================================
From Waltham Forest History and Heritage Network
St John’s Hall, off High Road, Leytonstone, London E11 by the entrance to the Matalan store, (not far from Leytonstone Central Line station). Entrance: £2.
A Leyton and Leytonstone Historical Society event. (Free entrance for members).
Esther Freeman leads a walk round central Walthamstow talking about women activists of the area, with a section about Leytonstone activists. Historically East London has been a hotbed of activism, and women have been at the centre of social change for centuries. Starting location: meet on the steps of Waltham Forest Town Hall, Forest Road, Walthamstow, London, E17 4JF
 |
Waltham Forest schoolgirls remember the Suffragettes
Vestry House Musseum, E17 |
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RADICAL CHILDHOODS IN WALTHAM FOREST
at St Peter’s Church in the Forest, 18 Woodford New Road, E17 3PP
Many campaigners for social political, and religious change, grew up in Waltham Forest... This event will explore the relationship between activism and environment in Leyton and Leytonstone, as well as Walthamstow and beyond, across social classes. From female Methodist preaching, nursing in the Crimea, to socialism, feminism, and campaigns for fair treatment in South Africa, this event will highlight the links between the effect of the forest and the increasingly urbanised nature of Waltham Forest.
The afternoon will provide opportunities for hands-on activities, exploring gravestones in St Peter’s churchyard , the local environment and their associations, making links with family history, and hearing individual stories about growing up here from our local experts.
3.20p.m. Activity choice of the following:
- Research: Barrie Burton will be available with his database of St Peter’s parish registers to help anyone interested track their family history.
- Walk: David Boote (Waltham Forest Walks) will lead a walk entitled “Children and young people round and about St Peter’s and Forest School”.
We will sing protest songs throughout the afternoon, led by guitarist and campaigner Louis Martin (Fossil Free Newham). Children are welcome and activities will be provided. Tea and cake will be available throughout.
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A Community Outreach Party by Extinction Rebellion
(Slightly adapted from email message)
We are hosting an event on Sunday the 24th of March, 12 - 4pm. It will be a family friendly, peaceful outreach event near The Broadway, Crouch End. There will be face-painting, mask, flag & banner making, clothes printing, music, poetry, talks, food and more. We are very keen to engage as much of the local community as possible – everyone is welcome.
The aim of the event is to spread awareness, counter misinformation and engage the community on the subject of climate change and ecocide – in 2018 the UN IPCC report revealed that carrying on in our current trajectory, we have less than 12 years before the effects of climate change are irreversible, and this will inevitably lead to our own extinction. Yet our government has refused to act accordingly.
Tonight, following a campaign by our local Friends of the Earth groups, Haringey Council declared a state of CLIMATE EMERGENCY. This puts them in line with around 40 other councils and cities in the UK and around 400 globally; a number increasing almost daily. We must now ask Haringey what effective actions will follow their welcome words, and work with them and other representatives of civil society to force the UK Government to treat this issue with the seriousness it deserves.
Here is a link to the event (if you are wary of clicking on email links, please go to Facebook and search “Crouch End Extinction Rebellion Street Party!”)
We have all been politely following the rules for so long and it has led us into an environmental catastrophe. So now, in the spirit of Extinction Rebellion, and given the short timescales involved, we are compelled to bend the rules in order to make our governance take notice. So this is a pop-up style event and the location will be mobile.
We would be delighted if individuals or representatives of organisations would be willing to attend the event, and we would love to hear from you on the day. Take the podium, tell us your views, your hopes, your fears. We want everyone in this community to have their voices heard. If you would be willing to contribute a speech, a poem, a performance, or to participate in any way, please get in touch with us, we would love to hear from you! Please also get in touch if you just want to find out more about the event.
Feel free to call the following numbers or email if you have any questions.
This event will be followed up by a public talk & community organising meeting at the Union Church & Community Centre (Weston Park/Ferme Park Rd, Crouch End N8 9PX) the following Tuesday evening: "The Truth about Climate Change - and What to Do About it!" (26 March 19:00-21:30).
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From WCML
Working Class Movement Library
51 The Crescent,
Salford, M5 4WX
Invisible HistoriesTalks series
Our spring series of free Wednesday 2pm Invisible Histories talks starts up again on 13 March with Nicola Ashmore, curator of our current Guernica Remakings exhibition, and artist Claire Hignett speaking about aspects of the exhibition. Subsequent talks include:
27 March. Working class writing and publishing in the late 20th century: literature, culture and community
Tom Woodin will discuss the emergence of working class writing and publishing workshops in the 1970s and their impact. Many working class people, including school #children, housewives, workers and others, all took up writing in order to express their feelings, understand their lives and promote change. New relationships between writers, audiences and publishers were developed while the issues of class identity and democratic organisation gave rise to considerable debate and disagreement. In attempting to develop new standards and cultural practices, workshops challenged mainstream institutions and elitism. These debates will be explored alongside examples of the writing that responded to broader social change.
This is a change from our original programme. Michael France's talk on the Library's new acquisition of a Reform Act scrapbook will take place at a later date
10 April Sally Groves Out on the Costa del Trico! [See review on this blog.]
24 April Rob Hargreaves Beyond Peterloo: Elijah Dixon and Manchester’s forgotten reformers.
Rob's talk will focus on Dixon's contribnution to the radical campaign for democracy, in the aftermath of Peterloo, as well as to a range of other causes aimed at improving working class life in VIctorian Manchester. Copies of the book will be available for sale.
8 May Joe Darlington British terrorist novels of the 1970s
22 May James Clarke The litten path
5 June Film screening Strata
The talks continue until July.
The full programme of spring/summer events is now up on our Web site at www.wcml.org.uk/events.
It includes a series of four evening talks in June/July on the theme of state violence, Not just Peterloo; a performance from Breathe Out Theatre remembering the Lune Street protests in 1842 Preston; and the return of Townsend Productions' Ragged Trousered Philanthropists.
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EXHIBITIONS
Our current guest exhibition Guernica Remakings, exploring the ongoing power of Pablo Picasso’s iconic 1937 painting Guernica through a display of 21st century reworkings from across the globe, runs until 20 March.
After that a guest exhibition about Sylvia Pankhurst and her companion, Silvio Corio, illustrating the lifelong activities of this couple in spearheading campaigns centred on social justice, human rights and anti-fascism, opens on Friday 29 March, and runs until 23 May.
To mark the opening of the Sylvia and Silvio exhibition we are hosting a free talk on Saturday 30 March at 2pm by Sylvia's biographer Katherine Connelly. Katherine will explore the revolutionary partnership of socialist suffragette Sylvia and Italian exile Silvio Corio. Meeting in the revolutionary year of 1917, they fell in love and worked side by side in radical campaigns that influenced the course of the 20th century.
From secretly printing and distributing literature by the leaders of the Bolshevik Revolution, to anti-fascist activism and exposing the plight of Ethiopia under Fascist occupation, Sylvia and Silvio’s publishing and campaigning efforts amplified the voices of those the British government did not want to hear and provided inspiration to those struggling against fascism, imperialism and racism across the world. This little-known aspect of the Pankhurst story remains relevant and inspiring today.
The Library's splendid new acquisition, as part of our National Lottery Heritage Fund project
Voting for Change, of a bound 1915/1916 volume of the weekly newspaper edited by Sylvia,
The Woman’s Dreadnought, will be on display after the talk. More information about this acquisition is on our blog
here.
Admission free; all welcome. Light refreshments available.
[Both Sylvia and Silvio feature in previous posts on this blog]
Exhibitions open Wednesdays to Fridays 1-5pm, and first Saturday of month 10am-4pm.
The Library's Peterloo bicentenary exhibition Peterloo: news, fake news and paranoia will open on Friday 31 May. Related:
Radical Readings with a Peterloo theme
Those who were there - the people at Peterloo have their say will take place on Sunday 14 April at 2pm at Maxwell Hall, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WU. Actors Christopher Eccleston, Carla Henry, Mike Joyce, Nico Mirallegro and Maxine Peake will participate in an afternoon of prose, poetry and song. There will also be poetry from Oliver James Lomax, ballads from Jennifer Reid and rousing music from the Oldham Tinkers. This event aims to give context, and pause for reflection, in the run-up to the commemorations this summer of the bicentenary of the Peterloo Massacre.
Tickets price £15 plus booking fee are still available online via www.wcml.org.uk/radicalreadings.
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SPECIAL DISPLAY ITEM
A first edition of The Masque of Anarchy, the poem written by Shelley in response to the Peterloo Massacre, was purchased by WCML as part of our joint Voting for Change project with the People's History Museum, using funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund Collecting Cultures programme. It is on display at PHM from now until the end of April and will then return to WCML for display from Friday 31 May until Thursday 19 September in our exhibition Peterloo: news, fake news and paranoia.
A blog post about Masque of Anarchy, 'From Paul Weller to Peterloo', is on the PHM Web site here.
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Reading and rebellion - Kim Reynolds and Jane Rosen
On Thursday 2 May at 6.30pm the editors of a new anthology of radical writings for children, Reading and rebellion, will talk about researching and selecting examples of the kinds of materials that, between the years 1900 to 1960, left wing and progressive parents wanted their children to read.
Admission free. Copies of the book will be available to purchase.
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TENTH ANNUAL FROW LECTURE
The tenth annual Frow Lecture, in honour of the Library's founders, will be given at the Old Fire Station, Crescent, Salford on Saturday 11 May at 2pm by Professor John Callaghan from the University of Salford who will speak on the topic 1919 - every place a storm centre. More details at www.wcml.org.uk/events.
Admission free; all welcome.
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NEW from WCML
Not just Peterloo - a series of talks on state violence
We are holding a series of four talks on state violence,
Not just Peterloo,
Wednesdays at 7pm starting on 26 June. Topics include state surveillance, the Plug Plot Insurrection and the policing of Orgreave, with the first talk being on protest and the politics of space in 19th century Manchester and Salford. Admission free. Full details at
www.wcml.org.uk/events.
Raymond Williams Society conferenceThe Society's annual conference takes place at the Friends Meeting House in Manchester on 26 and 27 April, under the title Cultural production and the redundancy of work. The Society sets the scene thus: 'If recent forecasts are to be believed, a crisis is looming governed by the increasing contradiction between the forces and relations of production: automation will determine a new social order either within capitalism or beyond it. Such developments would generate reconfigurations and reconceptualisations of the relations between work, leisure and culture. This conference will focus on these relations as they are currently developing and as they might do in the future'. Further conference details at https://raymondwilliams.co.uk/annual-conference/.
There are a limited number of free places available for the Saturday. Primarily, these are for those outside of academia who wish to attend the Raymond Williams Reading Group on the Saturday morning. Lunch and refreshments will be provided. Funded by the Raymond Williams Foundation, the bursaries also guarantee access to the conference for the full day. For further information and to enquire about securing a free place contact RWS Secretary Phil O’Brien - philip.obrien@manchester.ac.uk.
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Blackstone Edge Gathering
In 1846 Chartist
Ernest Jones addressed a gathering of 30,000 people on Blackstone Edge. He was so moved by the experience of thousands of working people converging on this spot from all directions that he wrote a poem commemorating the event.
In commemoration of the Chartists and their gathering, every year choirs, individuals and small groups walk up to the rocky outcrop on Blackstone Edge, picnic and sing Chartist and other songs; sometimes people read poems or speak about the Chartists. You can join in the singing or just listen.
This year's Blackstone Edge Gathering will be on Sunday 5 May. Meet either in the car park below the White House pub at midday or at the gathering place about 12.30-1pm.
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NEWS FROM NOWHERE CLUB
Reminder:
*** Please note, we have a new system: doors open at 7.30pm only. ***
Before that, volunteers are frantically setting up the room and need the room to themselves!
If you arrive before then, we are providing drinks and snacks on a table in the foyer.
The End of the NHS? Much Closer Than You Think.
Speaker: Carol Saunders, campaigner with Tower Hamlets Keep Our NHS Public / NE London Save Our NHS.
In its 70th year, it’s an open secret that the NHS is struggling as never before. We’ve been bombarded with stories about missed targets, bed shortages, staff shortages, A&E and hospital closures and the dire lack of services for mental health patients. But that’s just the headlines. Come and hear the jaw-dropping back-story of how, back in 2013/14, the World Economic Forum drew up a blueprint for dismantling worldwide socialised health services: a blueprint that’s being followed right now in NHS England.
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NEWS FROM NOWHERE CLUB
Saturday 13th April 2019
Orwell, Poverty and London
Speaker: Dr Luke Seaber
Professor John Newsinger is not up to the journey from Bath after all, but we are delighted to welcome another distinguished Orwell scholar instead: Dr Luke Seaber. With a fascination for Orwell, he is the author of two books about him. Luke teaches at University College London.
George Orwell first came to the attention of the wider public with the publication of Down and Out in Paris and London in 1933. This book has inspired generations with what is seen as its unflinchingly honest portrayal of life amongst the poor, but its story is more complicated than the book’s self-presentation suggests. This talk will explore the truth behind one of Orwell’s most famous works, exploring his experiences of poverty in and around London and how fact and fiction mix in one of the twentieth century’s most influential pieces of reportage.
We will also show two short films about Orwell: one by Noam Chomsky and one about Orwell’s politics. We will distribute a list of films about Orwell.
7.30 Doors open 8pm Talk 9pm Discussion
Enquiries 0208 555 5248
Epicentre, West Street E11 4LJ
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From Medact
Launch of the Patients Not Passports Toolkit
- a complete guide to advocating for people facing NHS charges
and all you need to know to join the campaign against the Hostile Environment in the NHS.
ENSURING UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE:
ADVOCACY TOOLS IN THE CONTEXT OF MIGRANT CHARGING
6:30 - 8:30PM
TUESDAY 9TH APRIL
Kennedy Lecture Theatre, UCL Institute Of Child Health,
30 Guilford Street, London, WC1N 1EH
In October 2017 the NHS underwent a fundamental shift in the way it provides care. For the first time since its foundation, NHS Trusts are now required to charge patients upfront for treatment.
Our event will explore the impact of NHS charging regulations on migrants and the role healthcare workers have in improving access to care for all, both in advocating for patients facing increasing barriers to care, and in protecting the universal principles that underpin the NHS.
We’ll launch the Patients Not Passports Toolkit; a collaboration with Docs Not Cops and Migrants Organise that is designed to support you towards understanding NHS charging policy and detail the many ways healthcare workers can advocate for patients. We’ll also be publishing our own briefing paper on NHS charging that examines why the policy is unworkable and what the alternatives are.
We’ve been working with UCL Institute for Global health, Docs Not Cops and Health Professionals for Global Health Collaborate to bring together a selection of expert speakers that will take you through NHS charging policy, the vital role Unions and Royal Colleges have to play in advocating for patients, and the grassroots healthcare worker campaign leading the calls for the policy to be scrapped. REGISTER HERE
OTHER EVENTS IN LONDON
2nd April - Medact Migrant Solidarity Group meeting, 7-9pm, 28 Charles Square, London, N1 6HT
4th April - Momentum Toward Nuclear Weapons Abolition and the Role of Nuclear Weapons States
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Another Reminder
New Anarchist Research Group
Saturday 23 March, 2019
2 - 4.30 p.m.
Anarchism, Syndicalism and workplace organisation: Malatesta and Monatte, Malatesta and the FORA.
Anthony Zurbrugg
Details as previously posted.
Errico Malatesta is a singular figure in anarchist history, given the length of his activity and the impact he made. How well did his perspectives stand up, in the light of events and developments before and after WW1, in the light of experience in France, Italy and Argentina?
Anthony Zurbrugg is a bookseller and publisher. He has edited and translated: Bakunin: Selected Texts 1868-1875 and Rene Berthier's Social-Democracy and Anarchism in the International Workers' Assocation, 1864-1877. His most recent publication is Anarchist Perspectives in Peace and War, 1900-1918, and he is working on a sequel: Anarchist Perspectives: Revolution and Syndicalism: From 1917 to 1930.
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Wednesday 20 March, 7.30 pm.
"After many requests we asked Michael Mears to once again stage his superb one-man play This Evil Thing. This time it will be at Park View Academy in Tottenham, on Wednesday 20 March, 7.30 pm. In a breath-taking performance Michael gives life to characters ranging from Bertrand Russell to Annie, the girlfriend of Bert Brocklesby, one of the ‘absolutist’ COs imprisoned in Richmond Castle in 1916. The CO story is very well told here – many were actually still in prison in 1919 – and the audience at last year’s gripping performance in Harringay were riveted."
"The ‘evil thing’ in question was conscription, as described by Clifford Allen, chairman of the No-Conscription Fellowship and an ‘absolutist’ whose health was broken by prison conditions and solitary confinement."
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International Women's Day in Ealing
West Ealing Library
Friday 8 March 5.30pm
Activism in India
"Janani Sridharan is a computer professional-turned-social activist from
India who has worked broadly in the area of democracy and with
different women’s groups. She will speak about the many struggles
and victories of women and the gender battles in her country, and
share insights from her journey so far."
Admission: free, advance booking required
West Ealing Library
Melbourne Avenue,
Ealing, W13 9BT
T 0203 700 1065
E westealinglibrary@ealing.gov.uk
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NEW SEASON AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
4 April – 9 November
"April 2019 sees the launch of our Cold War season, including our new exhibition Protect and Survive: Britain’s Cold War Revealed, offering a fascinating look into life in Britain during the turbulent Cold War era. Our events season will include a series of lates, talks and panel discussions, film screenings, creative workshops and family activities exploring the reality of life in Britain under the persistent threat of nuclear attack."
"An array of original documents will be on display, including political memos, spy confessions, civil defence posters..."
[A previous exhibition there on this sort of theme included items relating to Spies for Peace.]
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Reminder/Update
Day School with lots of discussion:
‘Working Class Adult Education in Yorkshire between the Wars:
what can we learn for today?"
Independent Working-Class Education Network
10.30 - 3.30 Saturday 30 March 2019
Quaker Meeting House, Lower Friargate, York YO1 9RL
Admission (includes lunch): £5.00 (pay on day)
Presenters:
- Christine Pushpa Kumbhat* (author of ‘Working Class Adult Education in Yorkshire 1918-1939’)
- Richard Lewis (author of Leaders and Teachers. Adult Education and the Challenge of Labour in South Wales, 1906-1940)
- Sharon Clancy (Raymond Williams Foundation, Adult Education 100)
- Rob Hindle (Senior Area Education Manager, WEA Yorkshire)
- Colin Waugh (author of ‘Plebs’: The Lost Legacy of Independent Working-Class Education)
The day will consist of five sessions, with an introductory talk by each speaker, and there will be plenty of opportunity for discussion.
*To access Pushpa’s thesis, Google: ‘Working Class Adult Education in Yorkshire 1918-1939’
In the tradition of Ruth Frow’s unpublished 1968 thesis on the Labour Colleges in Lancashire 1909-1930, and Richard’s ground-breaking 1996 book about WEA/Labour College interaction in South Wales, Pushpa will speak about her important December 2017 Leeds University thesis, which deals with WEA, Plebs League/National Council of Labour Colleges and Cooperative Society adult education in Yorkshire between the wars, focusing especially on the WEA/NCLC interaction.
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NEW from IWCE/NOR4NOR
Rail Summit
Norwich on Saturday 27th April
Speakers include Rachel Maskell (Labour shadow rail minister), David Raby, (Norwich Green party), Steve Hedley (RMT assistant secretary,) Nadine Rae (TSSA, invited), Kamiljeet Gill (TUC).
This will be workshop-based day with the following themes:
Workshops: AM: 1) Learning from the Past: planning and implementing workers control/workplace democracy. Stan Newens.
2) How to build a democratic alternative model. Hilary Wainwright
3) The value of nationalisation and listening to workers.
Dave Berry and Glenroy Watson (invited)
PM 4) Making a co-operative and sustainable railway.
Paul Salveson on co-operative ownership
5) Moving beyond top- down management.
John Porter on new structures for rail
6) Training and campaigning programme for public ownership: A voice in the industry and creating a national network for public ownership; building up a national rail oral history archive. Keith Venables (invited)
Broader issues will include: the NOR4NOR charter, building a new democratic structure: options like municipal rail ownership, co-operative ownership, regional ownership; the role of workers'/passengers' control - what is a viable model? What would a democratically run railway look like? What are the links with other forms of transport? How to get a sustainable and accessible railway system? History: the 20th century call for workers' control and workers' self- management - how relevant today? Loco Focus: British Rail workers own experiences since 1948: how oral history can help us plan for the future. Union education: A voice in the industry: education for change: a training package for rail unions on how to run the railways e.g. rail economics, inspection and accountability; rail and rail unions in Europe. What do the the rail unions want: issues like DOO, pay and conditions etc. Research and developing the case for public ownership: speakers notes and key issues. The best ways to campaign: building a national network. There will be contributions from We Own It and Bring Back British Rail.
The venue is fully accessible and is a 10-15 min bus ride from Norwich train station and then only a short distance from the centre of Norwich.
=========================
Reminder/Update from IWM
Further to previous post
Lives of the First World War needs your help: make your contributions before 12:01am on 19 March 2019. Take the opportunity to upload images and share information with us so that it can become part of our permanent digital memorial.
Our final enewsletter will be sent next week, but after this you can stay up-to-date by following us on Twitter, Facebook or by checking the Lives homepage.
FAQs about What Happens Next on website.
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Surround Springfields 27 April - and Make Barrels
Our craft team have already been travelling the country providing workshops on the construction and use of our nuclear waste barrel costumes.
There are some workshops being planned in the next few weeks happening in various parts of Wales and northern England, so let us know if you are interested in being included in these, or indeed organising your own ones.
Also, do let us know if you are organising communal transport to the event, so that we can publicise contacts for coaches/minibuses.
UPDATE
:
The outline timetable for the day is as follows:
12:00-1:00 Assemble outside Springfields Nuclear Fuels
1:00
Exhibition in the nearby village hall
5:00 Live link with indigenous communities resisting uranium mining, in the village hall
7:00 End
Veggies will be providing food and hot drinks during the day, and there is a nearby pub. That said, it is advisable to bring plenty of water and you may like to bring hot drinks in a flask. April weather is of course unpredictable, so be prepared for rain or shine.
There is now a minibus coming from Leeds and Bradford. Details here:
Do let us know of any other organised transport, so we can publicise it.
If you are coming by public transport, the nearest operating railway station is Preston. (Well, actually Salwick station is right next to the site, but trains don't stop there on Saturdays . . . ) The 61 bus between Preston and Blackpool goes to Clifton, which is about a mile away from the site. Preston bus station is a 5-10 minute walk from the railway station. We may be able to organise a minibus pick-up from Preston, which we will communicate further about in due course.
We will be using the webinar to hear from indigenous communities around the world about the impacts of uranium mining and nuclear waste disposal. You can join us for this even if you cannot come to Springfields. We will be sending the link out in due course.
Join Musicians for Peace and Disarmament
for a fascinating programme
featuring the masterpieces of Mozart.
All proceeds from this concert will go towards organisations in the peace movement. Find out more »
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From the Alliance of Radical Booksellers
Posted on February 24, 2019
We are sad to announce that despite our best efforts the London Radical Bookfair will not be taking place in 2019. This is primarily down to the fact the main hall at Goldsmiths University will be undergoing some essential repairs throughout the year. All being well we will return to the venue in June 2020.
Despite not going ahead this year, we will be organising a range of other events:
- The Little Rebels Children’s Book Award and the Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing will both be going ahead as usual, with award ceremonies taking place in seperate locations. Please visit the respective website for details.
https://littlerebels.org
http://www.bread-and-roses.co.uk
-A decentralised Anarchist Festival [as above] will be taking place across the UK from Friday 31st May to Sunday 2nd June 2019. A great chance to get involved and set up your own events:
And planned for November 2019 will be a Campaigning Conference that hopes to bring together under one roof the broadest range of grassroots campaign groups. Look out for that.
Hope to see you at one of the above or else at the bookfair in 2020!
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