As usual, all meetings will be held in the MayDayRooms, 88 Fleet Street, London EC4Y 1DH
Please
note there is a small charge to cover the cost of room hire.
"Our meetings
are friendly and informal, and we would like to hear from you if you would like
to make a presentation at one of our future meetings."
Saturday 27th January 2018 2:00pm - 4:30pm
Would anarchism be good for our health? A look at
libertarian theory and practice in relation to medical services.
Liz Willis
Starting from some of the work in the RaHN (Radical History
Network) booklet “The NHS is 60” (2008), the talk will look briefly at the
history of medicine, challenging the narrative of (male-dominated) progress and
bringing out critiques of the medical establishment. It will look at
alternative theories about how health services and medical care might be
provided in a different kind of society and at a few attempts to implement some
of these ideas, whether as political policy (other ways the NHS might have gone),
small-scale experiment (the Peckham Centre) or on a wider scale in social
revolution (Spain 1936). Discussion might focus on how practical these various
sorts of initiative might be now; whether technological change has made
medicine more or less accessible and its practice more or less authoritarian
(is “patient power” achievable/desirable?); and how libertarians might
contribute to debates about providing better health for all as well as taking
defensive action to prevent things getting worse.
Liz Willis has a political background in YCND (Aberdeen),
anarchism, and Solidarity (London). A main focus since 2006 has been the
Radical History Network based in North East London and its blog (http://radicalhistorynetwork.blogspot.com). Her pamphlet
‘Women in the Spanish Revolution’ was published by the Solidarity group in 1975
and has been reprinted in various editions. She has self-published a few other
small pamphlets, e.g. ‘Mary Wollstonecraft and the Doctors’ (2017).
Previously on this blog:
Can Medicine be Libertarian?
Writing about medicine and health care in the Spanish Civil War
And elsewhere, related:
NOT INSIDE FOR THEIR HEALTH: Some medical considerations relating to London prisons, c.1750-1850 (20-page online pamphlet) ; Book review, The Health of Prisoners: Historical Essays.
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| Also available (most of it) online in two parts at smothpubs.blogspot.com |
Can Medicine be Libertarian?
Writing about medicine and health care in the Spanish Civil War
And elsewhere, related:
NOT INSIDE FOR THEIR HEALTH: Some medical considerations relating to London prisons, c.1750-1850 (20-page online pamphlet) ; Book review, The Health of Prisoners: Historical Essays.
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Saturday 24th February 2018 2:00pm - 4:30pm
Anarchist
Cartography participatory session
Rhiannon
Firth
Critical cartography starts
from the idea that maps – like other texts such as the written word, images or
film – are not (and cannot be) value-free or neutral. Maps reflect and
perpetuate relations of power, often in the interests of dominant groups.
Critical cartography builds on this critique to advocate possibilities for
alternative mapping practices. A lot of the existing literature focuses on
theory and practices that aim to provide tools for communities to make rights
and resource-claims from powerful entities. These approaches have been
criticised because they often rely on making a single representation of very diverse
communities, thus perpetuating existing exclusions and hierarchies. They tend
to mimic existing mapping practices and spatial representations, and they
frequently operate to legitimate the agencies they are making claims from.
Dominant mapping conventions are often internalised so it is difficult not to
fall into the trap of attempting to use the Master's tools to dismantle his
house. There is a need for further work and discussion around the potential for
using maps and map-making as part of self-organised resistance. The
purpose of this session is to think through the conditions for an anarchist
cartography. The session will involve an introduction to critical cartography
literatures, a discussion of existing activist initiatives, and a facilitated
map-making session.
Rhiannon Firth is Research Fellow at the
University of East London, where she conducts research and teaching at the
intersection of Political Theory and Education Studies. She supervises PhD
students and lectures undergraduate students on radical social movements,
community organising and global politics. She received her PhD, funded by the
ESRC, from the Department of Politics and International Relations at the
University of Nottingham. Her thesis involved ethnographic work with
intentional communities throughout the UK. She has since published articles on
topics including urban utopianism, critical pedagogy and methodology, utopian
theories of time and temporality, critical cartography, pedagogies of the body
and feminist consciousness-raising. She is currently writing about anarchist
approaches to organising around natural disasters.
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Saturday
24th March 2018 2:00pm - 4:30pm
Louise
Michel in London (1890s-1905): a Political Reassessment
Constance
Bantman
This talk will propose a political reassessment of the long
period of time spent in London by the French Communard-turned-anarchist Louise
Michel (1890–1905). It emphasises the breadth of her militant activities as
well as her very concrete engagement in specific political projects, and
highlights the coherence of her political outlook and activities. This
perspective challenges predominantly masculinist portrayals of Michel, which
focus heavily on sentiment as an explanation for her political activism, and
downplay her overall agency as a militant. It also highlights the limitations
of methodological nationalism in analysing Michel’s activities in exile. Four
key aspects will be examined: Michel’s print and open-air propaganda; her
network-building activities; her contribution to libertarian pedagogies through
the ‘International socialist school’ which she set up in Fitzrovia in the early
1890s; and her campaigning activities for the defence of the right of asylum
and support for political refugees, at a time when liberal understandings of
asylum were being questioned.
Constance Bantman is a senior lecturer at the
University of Surrey. Her main research interest is the history and methodology
of anarchist transnationalism, with specific reference to the French movement
before 1914. She has written a book on French anarchist exiles in London before
1914 (https://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/products/60219; free
access at https://www.surrey.ac.uk/englis writer and editor Jean Grave
(initial findings here: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-review-of-social-history).
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| "An English tribute to the French Commune dedicated to the workers of both countries." |
