Exhibition: War Inna Babylon - The Community's Struggle for Truths and Rights

 

Institute of Contemporary Arts: 6 July – 26 September 2021

 

Photograph: Robert Croma

 

While War Inna Babylon was originally scheduled to open in May 2020 – the delay due to Covid-19 – has inadvertently made this the most timely exhibition it could possibly be.

 

In light of events over the past year, that have shown how little value is placed on Black lives – the Covid-19 Public Health England Review, BLM demonstrations, the Sewell washout, the increased use of police violence, and stop and search procedures against members of the Black community – we view this as the perfect time to focus on grassroots activism in Black frontline communities across the UK; which have been at the forefront of resisting state oppression and creating unfounded change for racial justice since the 1970s.

– Stafford Scott, co-Founder of Tottenham Rights

 

The Institute of Contemporary Arts reopens on July 6th with War Inna Babylon: The Community’s Struggle for Truths and Rights, an exhibition curated by London-based racial advocacy and community organisation, Tottenham Rights, Kamara Scott and Rianna Jade Parker.

 

Ten years on from the UK-wide riots sparked by the police killing of Mark Duggan, this exhibition shines a light on the vast range of collective actions, resistance and grassroots activism undertaken by Black communities across the U.K in response to over seven decades of societal and institutional racism. 

 

Using the ‘symbolic location’ of Tottenham, a neighbourhood that has received much attention in recent years due to its history of racial conflicts and heavy-handed policing; this exhibition combines archival material, documentary photography, film and state-of-the art 3D technology to ‘act as a window to the past and as a mirror for our present-day social climate’.  

 

War Inna Babylon will chronicle the impact of various forms of state violence and institutional racism targeted at Britain’s Black communities since the mass arrival-upon-invitation of West Indian migrants in the late 1940s. 

 

The exhibition will include original tributes from victims’ families, case studies of the controversial 'sus’ (suspected person) laws and the Gangs’ Matrix and highlights legal developments that have resulted from Black justice campaigns.  

 

War Inna Babylon will also present a new investigation into the killing of Mark Duggan by Forensic Architecture

 

The exhibition, the first of its kind to accurately assess the conditions of Black lives across Britain, will be accompanied by an extensive public programme presented both in Tottenham and at the ICA that will include film screenings, community educational groups, talks, cultural events, performances, and a digital presentation focusing on the interrelation between artificial intelligence (AI) and racism. 

Tickets will be available later in June.

https://www.ica.art/exhibitions/war-inna-babylon

 

In case Grand-Daddy was a Bank Robber: Review of a Useful Book

Jonathan Oates, Tracing Villains and their Victims: A Guide to Criminal Ancestors for Family Historians. (Pen & Sword, 2017), 178 pp. Original price £14.99 pbk. Library shelfmark (London) 364.3092

Radical historians may not be the primary target readership for this book, but its potential usefulness is not as limited as the title and sub-title might suggest and many of us will be able to find something of relevance to our concerns – which will often involve people who have found themselves up against the law – within its pages. And this can be a fruitful area of research generally, since, as the author points out, “the agents of the state and church take notice of those who break the state’s rules.” Examples are given of how the rules have changed, with some types of behaviour no longer bringing condemnation while others – including riots – are constant targets of the law enforcers.

Chapters deal with Criminal Courts in England and other parts of Britain, Punishment, Police Records, newspapers, books and other sources, followed by two case studies, of a murderer and a victim, and include a lot more than these headings indicate. Deliberate transgression for the sake of an ideology or principle – political crime – is something of an also-ran in the story but crops up at several points, with reference to a selected few variants: Jacobites, Jacobins, Chartists, Luddites, Communists, Fascists, “more modern forms of terrorism” and Suffragettes are mentioned. Only the first of these (about which Dr Oates has written elsewhere) rate an index entry. (In fact the index is rather patchy, with some subjects and names omitted, e.g. Robert Farquhar of “Peter Culter” [Peterculter], Aberdeen, whose unsuccessful petition for clemency gets a two-page spread.) “Riots” will take the reader to half a dozen pages, however.

Throughout the information is presented not as mere lists and not uncritically but with discussion of its scope, limitations, accessibility and context. Frequent extracts and quotations help to put flesh on the archival bones and bring out the human interest of the material, and there are a number of interesting illustrations. A certain bias may be observed towards the author's own location and research interests, not a serious fault since he shows how his methods can be applied elsewhere. England is not taken to mean Britain, other parts especially Scotland receiving a share of attention, if perhaps not quite an equal one: although repeated mention is made of suicide having been a crime until 1961, the fact that this was not the case in Scotland is unstated.

There is less to be discovered about victims although still perhaps more than can usually be known about "ordinary" people. What there is may serve to correct impressions conveyed by prejudice and stereotyping, (for example by examining witness statements of evidence - sometimes not presented in court - about young women, contrasted with media assumptions about them). Such is always a valid endeavour, as is the aim, evident throughout, of arriving at as complete and accurate an account as possible of any given event.

Of particular relevance to some radical historians' recent concerns (see below) are the pointers to information on prisons (including deaths therein), courts martial, mental health, and young offenders' institutions. Even corporal punishment in schools comes under scrutiny, with the strong suggestion that the punishment - "this heinous behaviour" - was the real crime there. Guidance is provided as to which file series in the National Archives deal with what: MEPO for the Met (including Special Branch although this is not said), KV for MI5 surveillance of individuals and so on. The sources considered are by and large official or mainstream, so that there is room for more publicising of archives generated by perceived subversive organisations themselves, specialist library holdings, and websites which have made out-of-print publications available again. Next time "Tracing Your Subversive Ancestors"?

The internet is not favoured by the author as a primary research tool in any case, which may partly explain the slightly puzzling absence of any reference to the Digital Panopticon project* – although that is admittedly a “work in progress”. Contact details and a bibliography however are provided with websites where applicable, rounding off a very worthwhile publication, professionally presented and accessible to amateur and “feral” historians as well as the ancestor or antecedent hunters.

*The Digital Panopticon: The Global Impact of London Punishments, 1780-1925. See alsoNew Online Resources for Radical Historians (2)

A "great riot" at Newcastle in 1740
as reported by the Gentleman's Magazine (p.125 of the book)

Some previous posts on this blog that have used the sort of resources mentioned in the book:

"Indecency" in a Brighton Church, 50 years ago
"Indecency" in a Brighton Church, 50 years ago

Trying Times: More Anarchists in 1894, Part 2
Trying Again: More Anarchists at the Old Bailey, 1894
Little stories from the Old Bailey: Anarchist on trial 1894

Little Old Stories from the Old Bailey
Suffragette Conspiracy Trial, 1912.

... and more...

Things happening in London

Newly notified (thanks to Past Tense)

1. London – A City in Turmoil

An illustrated historical talk for Cityread London 2016
By Nick Dobson
Where and when?
Tuesday 12 April 2016 at 7.15pm
(Doors open at 6.45pm)

Admission Free
Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre
    Holborn Library
    32-38 Theobalds Road
    London WC1X 8PA

Website     www.camden.gov.uk/localstudies
Phone     020 7974 6342

This is in association with an exhibition at the same venue:

Riots in Camden
A free historical exhibition for Cityread London 2016

12 April 2016 – 11 June 2016

(Opening Hours: Mon 10-6 Tues 10-6 Thurs 10-7 Fri 10-5 
Alternate Saturdays 11-5)
Admission Free
=================
2. Anchor & Magnet presents The Brixton Exchange on Saturday 23rd April

The Brixton Exchange 2 will be a day of workshops and exchanges, using creative approaches to discuss Brixton’s community heritage – what it is, how do we hold on to it, and what can we learn from others. The aim is to give voice to a wide spectrum of Brixton’s community both past and present.

 <>This event follows on from Anchor & Magnet's first Brixton Exchange in 2013, which brought together over 100 local residents, community activists, artists, academics and others to discuss questions of urban regeneration and community ownership in Brixton and elsewhere. <>

The past 3 years have seen incredibly rapid change in Brixton and the beginning of major initiatives which will bring further changes. Community activism has also been on the rise. As a 5-year council heritage project begins, we want to ask: what (and who) is being lost, what to hold on to and how, what is the experience of other community/activist groups past and present, and how these stories should be represented and shared more widely? How does heritage become the inheritance of future generations and how can it serve present and future communities?

Taking heritage as the starting point, The day sets out to explore different kinds of memory and memorializing; sharing of stories, the meeting of ‘old’ and ‘new’ Brixton; contested notions of heritage starting from the context of central Brixton; the commodification of ideas of heritage’ as a tool to brand Brixton, while parts of the community are edged out; the politics of preservation and impermanence, objects and the idea of the community museum.

Speakers and facilitators will include artists, historians, architects, activists and academics, who will create spaces for dialogue. Workshops and exchanges include mapping contested spaces in Brixton, decolonising heritage, using objects to tell and record personal memories, a food treasure hunt & cooking, and more.

 Come prepared to speak up, and contribute your voice and your hands.

Who is it for?
Local residents of Brixton past and present; community activists, local workers and business owners, archivists, those with an interest in heritage and community history, planners, architects, artists and those with personal perspectives to bring to the dialogue.

Speakers & Facilitators:

• Nick Beech, Architectural historian, Queen Mary University, on Stuart Halls thoughts on metropolitan heritage
• Michael McMillan, Artist & Curator, creator of The West Indian Front Room project
• Nabeel Hamdi, Emeritus Professor of Housing and Urban Development, Oxford Brookes University
• Barby Asante, on thinking about internal colonialism and the possibility of decolonising heritage
• Ashvin de Vos and Daniel Fitzpatrick, Variant Office architects, on mapping tales of contested spaces

• Fan Sissoko, food treasure hunt
• Katy Beinart, making traces of objects for the Brixton Museum
• Bureau of Silly Ideas
• Critical Practice

More TBC - check our website <http://www.anchorandmagnet.org/>
and twitter feed @anchorandmagnet for updates

Tickets: please book through eventbrite.
<https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-brixton-exchange-2-tickets-22655146152>

===========================

AND

past tense have recently published a freesheet, Stealing the Commons, A Brief Introduction to the politics of Open space, enclosure and Resistance in London.

This is just a short piece, covering some of the research into open green space in the London area we have done over the last few years.

If anyone would like a paper copy, you can order one by sending us two first class stamps to:

past tense, c/o 56a infoshop, 56 Crampton Street, London, SE17 3AE

'Stealing the Commons' is also available in some bookshops, social centres, and other spaces in London... 

So far it's in - 

• Freedom Bookshop, 
• 56s Infoshop, 
• the Commonhouse,
• the DIYSpace for London, 
• Review Bookshop in Peckham, 
• New Cross Learning, The Field (New Cross), 
• Brick Lane Bookshop,
• Black Cat Cafe (Clapton), 
• Hornbeam Centre (Walthamstow), 
• Newham Bookshop,
• London Activist Resource Centre, 
• Electric Elephant Cafe (Walworth), 
• Big Green Books (Wood Green), 
•  and the Hub Cafe (Limehouse). 

The text of the freesheet is also up on p.t.'s website.
=====================
Join past tense and many other funky stalls at:
THE LONDON RADICAL BOOKFAIR

SATURDAY 7TH MAY
12-6pm

at Goldsmiths University, 8 Lewisham Way, London, SE14 6NW

featuring radical booksellers and publishers, comic and zine makers, artists and activists, small press, workshops and talks... 
Plus ceremonies for the Bread & Roses award for radical publishing and Little Rebels Children's Book Award.

have a look at the website https://londonradicalbookfair.wordpress.com for an overview of what’s going on…
Inspired by the rent strike that some Goldsmiths students have taken up, please note the addition of a mini housing conference (full line up still being finalised), and also some musical acts to the bill.

join the Facebook event:
https://www.facebook.com/events/891054811007074/ and crucially invite all your friends to it
they’re on twitter at @arbradbookfair and the main facebook page is:
https://www.facebook.com/London-Radical-Bookfair-497414930304046/

Please do help spread the word…  Flier here.

www.radicalbooksellers.co.uk

==============================

LSHG forum: 100 Years since the 1916 Easter Rising

100 years since the 1916 Easter Rising

Saturday 30^th April, Institute of Historical Research, 

Senate House, University of London, Malet St, London WC1

Admission free, donations towards costs welcome

1916 Agenda

Midday: registration

12.30 p.m. Start & introduction, Keith Flett

Keynotes: 

Chris Bambery: Was the Easter Rising doomed from the start?

Catherine Bergin: ‘The Irish fight for liberty is the greatest Epic of Modern History’ : The Irish revolution and African American radicals.'

James Heartfield: '1916: The Rising and the British Empire'

John Newsinger: 'Sylvia Pankhurst, the Easter Rising and the Women’s Dreadnought'

Discussion

Close: 4pm

Organised by the London Socialist Historians
=============================================
Reminder: SHS meeting - Ada Salter and Ethical Socialism

Socialist History Society Public Meeting

Speaker: Graham Taylor
7 p.m, 26th April 2016
Venue: Marx Memorial Library, Clerkenwell Green (near Farringdon Underground)

"Ada Salter was a pioneer of an ethical brand of socialism well known nationally and in her local Bermondsey in the early twentieth century. For a long time Salter has been unfairly been neglected. In this talk, which will be based on his new book on Ada Salter, Graham tells the story of this remarkable woman for the first time, documenting her significance for the history of both socialism and feminism. Salter was responsible for most of the ideas behind the Bermondsey Revolution, drawing on her experiences in the women’s movement and as President of the Women’s Labour League. Her ground-breaking ideas on urban development were to spread all over London through her work as an LCC councillor, and all over Britain through her role as Chair of the National Gardens Guild. Salter’s experiences as a ‘Sister of the People’ in the London slums eventually led her to the Independent Labour Party, and to the belief that achieving social justice required a grassroots alliance between the labour and women’s movements. Ada succeeded in winning huge majorities for her ideas."

 ATTENDANCE IS FREE – ALL WELCOME
 http://www.socialisthistorysociety.co.uk/

===============================================

Some new bits on the Radical History of Hackney site:

1. A people's account of the Hackney anti-poll tax demonstration on March 8th 1990 (republication of a booklet by Hackney Community Defence Association - includes eye witness accounts, chronology etc)

https://hackneyhistory.wordpress.com/hcda/a-peoples-account-of-the-hackney-anti-poll-tax-demonstration-on-march-8th-1990/

2. ITN: raw footage of Hackney poll tax protest (half an hour of before, during and after)

https://hackneyhistory.wordpress.com/2016/04/16/itn-raw-footage-of-hackney-poll-tax-protest/

3. November 1990: Hackney leads poll tax non-payment league (excerpt from a piece in the Guardian about non-payment)

https://hackneyhistory.wordpress.com/2016/04/16/november-1990-hackney-leads-poll-tax-non-payment-league/

Also recommended: the ITNsource site - lots of footage filmed for TV news reports which is tagged and searchable by decade. A bit rough but still well worth a look: http://www.itnsource.com/en/

===========================================

A Magnificent Obsession?': UCL Public Lecture by Dr. Hilda Kean, 11 May

The Department of Information Studies and The Institute of Advanced Studies Presents:

"A magnificent obsession? A historian's search for a man (and his horse) in the archive."

A public lecture by Dr Hilda Kean

on Wednesday 11th May 2016,

 6pm, Institute of Advanced Studies, 

Common Ground, South Wing Wilkins Building, UCL, 

"Imagine: a series of apparently unread London diaries from the 1940s "found" in a local archive without accession records; an almost anonymous author; war, gossip, back biting, and accounts of riding horses - Mariana and Trump - daily in Hyde Park. Why wouldn't any cultural historian be engaged?" 

In this public lecture Hilda Kean explores what her diary research was about: the diaries? the horses?

the historian and a particular "moment" of reading?

(Dr Hilda Kean is an Honorary Senior Research Associate in the Information Studies department at UCL and Visiting Professor in History at the University of Greenwich.)

Talk starts promptly at 6.00 p.m. No booking required.

===========================================

Medact London Launch and film

Launch event of a new Medact local group in London, 

on May 5 at the Lush shop
on Oxford Street.

They will be showing 'The Divide', a documentary based on the book 'The Spirit Level' by Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson. The documentary aims to explore the growing gap between the rich and poor in the UK and the US. Katherine Round, the director, will be attending for a Q&A session.

http://thedividedocumentary.com/about  Trailer: http://thedividedocumentary.com/trailer?r

Tickets cost £4.50, and can be purchased here.

Medact is a charity for health professionals and others working to improve health worldwide.

It conducts research and analysis.

It campaigns and lobbies.

It educates and informs.

It is independent of powerful interest groups. It sees health through the lens of social justice.

New Pamphlet from Past Tense

(Reprint/new edition of a 1980s classic)

WE WANT TO RIOT, NOT TO WORK

The 1981 Brixton Riots

ISBN: 978-0-9565984-7-9

£5.00

“Between Friday, 10th April, 1981,  and Monday April 13th April 1981, serious disorder occurred in Brixton... when large numbers of persons, predominantly black youths, attacked police, police vehicles (many of which were totally destroyed), attacked the Fire Brigade, destroyed private premises and vehicles by fire, looted, ransacked and damaged shops...”

After more than a decade of repeated attacks, arrests, harassment, beatings, racist provocations by the local police and the Special Patrol Group, Brixton erupted in a massive uprising. The riot - followed by more in July, part of a nationwide wave of disorder - shocked the British state. Though quickly labelled ‘race riots’ by the press, in fact blacks and whites had fought side by side, in the first anti-police riots for more than a century.

We Want to Riot, Not to Work (originally published in 1982) combines rip-roaring personal accounts of the riots from unashamed participants, with a radical analysis of their causes, and the response of the authorities.

This publication can be bought online with paypal, at:
www.alphabetthreat.co.uk/pasttense/past tense publications

or by post:

write to
past tense
c/o 56a Info Shop
56 Crampton Street,
London
SE17 3AE

enclosing a cheque for £7.00 (including £2.00 Postage/Packing).

please make cheques payable to Past Tense Publications.

BULK ORDERS: If you would like a few copies to sell to your mates, your local bookshop or for a book stall, let Past Tense know, and they’ll do you a discount deal.

Coming in Summer

(Our now regular Listings Round-up)

UPDATE: Another upcoming event: an exhibition of See Red's posters

at The Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Association,
39 Tottenham Street,

from June 25-28.

On Friday 27th at 7pm, there will be a discussion ‘Radical Silkscreen Printing Collective’ led by See Red founder members Suzy and Pru.

The exhibition will be open 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday 25 and Friday 26 June
and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 June.
===================================

News from WCML
Working Class Movement Library, Salford
51 The Crescent,

Salford,, M5 4WX 

See also "new mobile-friendly site at www.wcml.org.uk" with new Objects of the month feature - pamphlets from the Library collection, selected to mark International Conscientious Objectors’ Day which was on 15 May.

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.

Free events alongside the exhibition:
Wednesday 10 June 2pm
Francis Beckett talk on Clement Attlee
Francis is an author, journalist, broadcaster, playwright and contemporary historian.  He will talk about his book Clem Attlee, which has been described as 'an engrossing personal biography'.

Wednesday 24 June 2pm
Film screening of the National Co-operative Film Archive’s Song of the People. Made in 1945, this film stars a young Bill Owen as a factory worker singing about characters and events in British history from the 14th century to recent conflicts, showing how the lesson for the future lies in co-operation.
Introduced by Gillian Lonergan from the National Co-operative Archive.

Wednesday 8 July 2pm
Pat Thane talk on the 1945 welfare reforms
Pat, who is Research Professor in Contemporary British History, Institute of Contemporary British History, King's College, London, will speak about the post-war welfare reforms.

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.

No Redemption Songs

On Thursday 18 June at 7pm the Library hosts a film and music performance with songwriter Brenda Heslop, her band Ribbon Road and photographer Keith Pattison. No Redemption Songs marks 30 years since the miners’ strike.

Keith documented the strike at Easington Colliery through an in-depth series of black and white photographs following the striking miners and their families through the optimism of August, through the deepening pessimism of winter, to the final vote to return to work.  After meeting with Keith during 2013, Northumberland-based songwriter Brenda wrote a 10 piece song cycle, No Redemption Songs, inspired by the photographs and recent visits to Easington Colliery.

Admission £10 on the door.
 

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.

Book launch, Northern Re-Sisters

The book launch of Northern ReSisters: conversations with radical women by Bernadette Hyland will take place on Saturday 6 June 2pm, in the Library annexe.

Women included in the book are Betty Tebbs, aged 97, a trade unionist and peace campaigner since the 1940s who recently appeared on television with Maxine Peake; Mandy Vere, who founded the News From Nowhere bookshop in Liverpool in the 1970s and still works there; Karen Reissman and Pia Feig who campaign about the NHS; and Alice Nutter, formerly in the band Chumbawamba, who now writes drama for theatre, radio and television.
Join Bernadette, meet some of her Northern ReSisters and take part in the discussion over refreshments and cake.
RSVP to maryquaileclub@gmail.com.  Further information here.
The Library is open 10am-4pm on 6 June if you want to come along prior to the book launch and browse our Spirit of '45exhibition.
 

Marx in Soho

The Calder Bookshop & Theatre present Marx In Soho by Howard Zinn at The King's Arms, Bloom Street, Salford M3 6AN on Thursday 18 June at 7.30pm.
 In Zinn’s play Marx returns to Earth to answer his critics but due to a bureaucratic error he is sent to Soho in New York rather than his old stomping ground in London to make his case. The play aims to be a critique of our society’s hypocrisies and injustices and an entertaining portrait of Marx as a voice of humanitarian justice.
Tickets £9 from www.wegottickets.com/event/313990 or contact B Sullivan on 07702 579278.
 

'Let us face the future' conference

The People's History Museum hosts a conference on Saturday 27 June marking, like our Spirit of '45 exhibition, 70 years since the 1945 general election. Topics include Labour’s courtship of the media in the 1930s and 1940s; the popular press, cartoons and the Attlee Labour government; steel, nationalisation and the Labour Party 1945-1951; and the Co-operative Party and the General Election of 1945. Further details here, including how to book tickets (£15; unwaged £10).

=============================

[still running, see previous posts...] - 

SACK BOB LAMBERT!
Former Police Spy, Serial Liar & Exploiter of Women
...instead of laying off 165 other staff...

Join us to demand the removal of Bob Lambert from London Metropolitan University.

End of Year Picket of London Met

Friday June 5th
12.00 – 2.00pm
LMU Tower, 166-220 Holloway Road, London N7 8DB

Spread the Word –  tell others about this campaign, raise the issue in your networks, communities, union, etc. – the more people know about Bob, the more pressure we all put on the university, the more likely it is that he will have to go.

Email us: islingtonagainstpolicespies@riseup.net

(Please note our new email address).

================================
Wakefield Socialist History Group

Guided walk round RADICAL BRADFORD is being held on Saturday 13 June. 

Meet 2 p.m. at the "Independent Labour Party" wall mural at the junction of Leeds Road and Chapel Street (approximately 10 minutes walk from the bus/train station). 
There will be short speech by Alan Stewart, Convenor of Wakefield Socialist History Group, at the start of the walk.

The guide for the walk itself is John Gill.  John is a socialist historian.

The walk will be about two miles and does involve some inclines.  It will go via Lister Park and end at Manningham Mills.

All welcome.  Free bottled water provided. 

The walk will be approximately 2 miles and involve some inclines.
(organised in conjunction with Ford Maguire Society)

Background history:

*Bradford began as a village by a ford.  "Brad" means "broad."
*By the time of the Domesday Book (1086) the village by the broad ford had grown large -by standards of the time- and had some 300 inhabitants.
*It was turned into a town when villagers were allowed to hold a weekly market; craftsmen then moved in.
*Medieval Bradford grew to a population of several hundred.  It had three streets -Kirkgate, Westgate and Ivegate.  The word "gate" in this context does not mean gate in a wall.  Rather it is derived from the Danish word "gate" meaning street.
*In 1642 with the onset of the Civil War, local people supported Parliament though the surrounding countryside sided with the King. Royalists sacked the town in 1643.
*The town recovered by the 17th century and was then transformed by the Industrial Revolution. The first bank opened in 1771.  The Bradford Canal was built in 1774 and in 1777 it was connected to the Leeds-Liverpool canal.
*By 1851 the population was 103,000 making it the seventh largest urban centre in England.  The town was notorious also for its' "dreadful urban squalor" (James 1990).
*Houses in particular were built in a haphazard fashion.  There were no building regulations until 1854 and most working class housing was overcrowded with neither sewers nor drains.  Many families lived in poorly ventilated cellars and in 1848-49 some 420 people perished in a cholera epidemic that hit the town.
*The Bradford Corporation was founded in 1847.  It was not until 1862 that the first mile of piping for a new sewage system was completed.  The first public park - Peel Park- opened in 1863.  The first public library opened in 1872. The first council houses weren't built until 1907. 

"As Bradford expanded in the mid 19th century there was talk of the need for additional public parks.  Indeed there was a chance to create one in Manningham.
There Samuel Lister owned the land. His estate consisted of a hall and 54 acres of parkland.  He'd allowed the public into the grounds for the annual gala and also at weekends and public holidays.
But now he'd moved away to live at Fairfield Hall near Addingham.  So Lister had plans to sell it off for a development of large villas.  Adverts appeared in the Bradford Observer from 22 April 1869.
Yet there had been a trade depression in the town.  Now was "not the time for property speculation."  Alvin (2013) says the scheme was dropped five months later.
Instead Lister offered in the spring of 1870 to sell the estate to the Corporation for £60,000.  Radical liberals on the council smelt a rat and accused him of profiteering.  Others asked why a park was being provided in relatively affluent Manningham -where many houses have gardens and outdoor space as it was- rather than more crowded working class districts such as Horton and Bowling.  However after much debate the Council accepted Lister's offer. The park opened that October.
But why on earth does the ruling class bother with public parks at all?  Alvin (2013) notes that in mid 19th century Bradford the lack of open spaces for recreation was said to be responsible for increasing numbers resorting to public houses and gambling for amusement.  It was felt parks would have a calming, civilising influence.  There the common man could mix in the open air with the "better educated" and be "influenced by their example."  Their health and behaviour would be improved.
Parks helped, in other words, with social control and with the reproduction of labour power.  There was method, after all, in ruling class madness!"

How it went

 (from Wakefield Socialist History Group)

Twenty eight people took part in a guided walk round "Radical Bradford" which the Group organised (with the support of the Leeds Ford Maguire Society) last Saturday (13 June).
 The walk started at the Independent Labour Party mural on Leeds Road and went through Little Germany and along Manningham Lane to Lister Park before finishing at Manningham Mills (site of a famous strike in 1881).
 The informative guide was John Gill.  At the end of the walk an excellent short talk was also given by Iain Dalton, who has written widely about industrial struggles in West Yorkshire.
 The group's next event is a meeting on the "The Chartists" at the Red Shed, Vicarage Street, Wakefield on Saturday 18 July at 1 p.m.

=====================================
IWCE Seminar:

Women Making History

Sat 13th June, London

Monday 17th August Edinburgh Word Power Bookshop

    World to Win/Manifesto for IWCE 

Details from website or email Convenor at iwceducation@yahoo.co.uk

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LSHG Summer Term seminars

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 5.30pm
 Monday June 15th - 'History of Riots' launch; Keith Flett and others

 Monday June 30th tbc

A launch event for A History of Riots is planned for Monday 15th June Room 102 at the Institute of Historical Research at 5.30pm. Details of the book here 

A History of Riots is the result of a conference held by the London Socialist Historians Group in early 2012, designed to look again at the historical aspects of riots in the wake of the August 2011 riots in the UK.

Many historians had thought that riots were a method of protest and revolt which had given way to more organised forms of expression, from trade unions to political parties, during the course of the nineteenth century. Events have proven this idea to be incorrect. Riots still take place around the world on a regular basis.

The contributors to A History of Riots probe various aspects of riots in order to examine the historical issues and concerns that motivate them and dictate their course and to better understand why they take place in the current day.

Sean Creighton looks at the Trafalgar Square riots in London in 1887, referred to as ‘Bloody Sunday’. Ian Birchall analyses how riots have been represented in fiction, while Neil Davidson reviews riotous activity around the Scottish Act of Union in 1707. Keith Flett looks at what is sometimes held to be the peak of British riot history, the Chartist period of the 1840s, while John Newsinger offers a different perspective: not a riot inspired by the crowd or the ‘mob’, as media commentators persist in naming protesters, but one driven by authority, a police riot in the US in the 1930s.

There are editorial introductions and conclusions that place these specific historical studies of aspects of the history of riots in a wider methodological and theoretical framework, looking at the work of some of the foremost historians of riots, including George Rude, and more recent material by Adrian Randall, Andrew Charlesworth and others.

The perspective of the book is clear. Riots are something which is an important part of history, but they also remain part of the present too. In this sense, understanding their history is an important task for historians and all those interested in how, and in what forms, protest develops.

This book represents a contribution to, and promotes, a discussion of both the history of riots and how an examination of this can help provide a better understanding of riots today.

Keith will be making some remarks as Editor and some of the other contributors will also speak briefly.

"We will then adjourn to celebrate the launch (but not with a riot - history shows Mondays are bad days for this)"

AND (SEE ALSO LSHG BLOG)

The Idea of Revolution in the 21st Century

Neil Davidson and Colin Barker are speaking on "The Idea of Revolution in the 21st Century" @ the Vernon Square SOAS campus at 7.30 on Wednesday 17th June - 

https://www.facebook.com/events/1621952831353874/

Marxism 2015: Ideas for Revolution

"The timetable for Marxism 2015 in London from 9-13 July is now available online - there are so many critical meetings on offer on a wide range of subjects..." 

https://www.facebook.com/events/666185253515107/

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Exhibition Launch Party

“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

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.

We will have an opening party on 2 July, with the bar also open for craft beer, cocktails, wine and food.

Facebook event

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The Anarchist Free School in Fitzrovia:
A guided walk and talk —

12 noon Saturday 20 June 2015
Author Lydia Syson will lead a 60-minute guided walk and talk about the life of her great-great grandmother Nannie Dryhurst, a teacher at the International School — an anarchist free school — set up in Fitzroy Square in the late nineteenth century by French anarchist and Communard Louise Michel.

“My great-great grandmother Nannie Dryhurst volunteered there with her lover, the war correspondent Henry Nevinson. Discovering this, and the fact that Louise Michel spent her last years in my own neighbourhood of
East Dulwich, led me to write my new novel Liberty’s Fire, which is coming out on 7 May. The book is set during the Paris Commune but the final scene takes place in Fitzrovia,” says author Lydia Syson.

The walk will also take in other sites of radicalism in Tottenham Street and Charlotte Street, with contributions from Fitzrovia News editors.
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COMING SHORTLY

A rare chance to see a long lost and excellent documentary on the 1981 Brixton Riots.

UPDATE: film showing of The Brixton tapes on 6th July is now sold out, seating-wise; this means you can still buy a ticket, but you might have to stand. 

BUT 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.

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Monday 6th 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.

About the film:
The Brixton Tapes, (1981)
Director: Greg Lanning. Television History Workshop

Filmed by a local collective based in Brixton, and consisting of footage from the April 1981 Brixton Riot, together with interviews with participants, and other local residents, The Brixton Tapes was filmed in the immediate aftermath of the uprising. It features local people'’s accounts of the widespread racist and violent policing preceding the riot, and of the events of the days of disturbances; accounts which contrast with mainstream media coverage.
The April 1981 riot was a seminal event – followed less than 3 months later by rioting in inner cities across the whole country. It led to massive changes in perceptions of policing and race relations. But the 2011 riots, together with widespread concerns about renewed Stop  and Search powers, and current uprisings against police violence in the US, show that what happened in Brixton, in April 1981 remains relevant  today.
Brixton today is also in the grip of another life and death struggle: between what remains of its vibrant community and development and gentrification…

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1587774461497768/
The film will be introduced by Alex from Past Tense, a long time Brixton resident and activist, who has taken part in, and written about, some of Brixton'’s turbulent recent past.

Past Tense is a radical history project, formed around a number of South London rebels and writers,  which produces publications, runs walks and talks, on subversive, working class and hidden history, and relates it to our own stories and present attempts to change the world for the better.
Check out past tense at: http://www.past-tense.org.uk