Social Movements then and now: 20 years on, global cooperation and anti-capitalism

Short notice of two events

Social Movements then and now: 20 years on global cooperation

Sunday June 16^th 2019

  7pm to 930pm

    Limehouse Town Hall 

646 Commercial Road
London   E14 7HA

On Eventbrite  and on the antiuniversity programme

Plus a newly minted PGA Oral History Project Facebook page 

and an event page. https://www.facebook.com/events/1785504294929703/ 

available for liking and sharing, 

Tweets- ecology

In 1999, twenty years ago, the anti-globalization movement opposing unfair trade imposition 

on the world’s peoples went from disconnected protests on different continents to linking up resistance

and calling the very first, simultaneous action happening all around the world.  

Today the cooperation of social movements from around the world is well established.  

In this evening event we will hear from speakers and then have discussion.

   Part 1 Speaker from the original global days of action #Friedericke Habermann: 

Why and how did we do what we did?  What was the Peoples' Global Action network?

   Part 2 Speakers from social movements now #Rising Tide, Extinction Rebellion, Reclaim the Power:

 Why and how are we building the climate justice movement today? 

           Speakers Zoey, Liam, Saartje #Land Workers Alliance: 

Where does the UK fit within the global movement for food, farming and environmental justice? 

           Speaker Sara

   

  Part 3 Questions and Discussion #Everyone: 

 What can we learn from our movement histories to help us today? 

         #facilitator Michael Reinsborough, Peoples' Global Action Oral History project          

             

Event organized by http://pgaoralhistory.net/ in collaboration with http://antiuniversity.org/

• Here is about Friedericke 
• And a bit about some of her press role 
• Rising Tide https://www.risingtide.org.uk/
• Reclaim the Power https://reclaimthepower.org.uk/
• Extinction Rebellion https://rebellion.earth/
• Land Workers Alliance https://landworkersalliance.org.uk/

Friedericke is confirmed to speak on global action days

Zoey confirmed as speaker from Rising Tide

Saartje confirmed as speaker for Reclaim the power

Liam confirmed as speaker for Extinction Rebellion

Sara  confirmed to speak for Land Workers Alliance 

    The schedule will look something like this…

7.00 brief introduction (Five minute remarks: the PGA oral history project and 
     why talk about social movements then and now)

• 7.05 People's Global Action – what began the global days of action? 
• -why and how did we do what we did?

7.30 Five minute remarks:  reclaim the streets J18 carnival against capitalism in 1999

• 7.35 Social Movements now -why and how are we building movement today?
• – (10 min) comments from rising tide,
• and (10 min) reclaim the power: Call out for Drax Power Station action
• (25 min) extinction rebellion.

8.25 Five minute remarks: the Captain Swing rebellion 1830s land workers 

   Note we are looking for someone(s) who can talk about/help research/make suggestions 
re Captain Swing Rebellion 1830s Sussex county agricultural workers at advent of the 

 harvester machine - please get in touch.

8.30 Food, farming and environment -Land Workers Alliance 

– where does the UK fit within the global movement for food sovereignty and land work?

• 8.45 Questions, discussion

9.30 end  

 --------------------------

20 years since J18 // Carnival Against Capital

June 18 @ 6:30 am - 9:30 pm

There will be a discussion on Tuesday 18 June on ‘20 Years since J18’ 

- looking back at the June 1999 anti-capitalist demo/festival/riot in the City of London

  and related issues.  

It’s at the Mayday Rooms, 88 Fleet Street London EC4Y 1DH

6.30-9.30pm 

.. reminiscences, images, analysis promised...

It's listed on their calendar: 

June 18 1999 saw an eruption of protests around the world. But amongst many demonstrations it was the tumult that took place in the City of London that offered a new model for revolts that tore through many cities. That day inaugurated a global anti-capitalist movement, which lasted into the mid-2000s. The actions combined riot with theatre, and brought together activists from a range of single-issue campaigns, from rave to anti-roads, from student movements to radical unions, from hunt sabs to anti-globalisation activists, alongside all sorts of people who had never been involved in protest before. In the subsequent years similar actions took place in many cities, most often around global government summits.

This year marks 20 years since the Carnival against Capital. So on June 18 this year we are planning an event that will bring together people who played a part in these histories and those who want to learn about it. The event will let us combine people’s memories with material traces from the protest movements of that time, to look back and to reflect on what happened then from the context of today’s struggles and social movements. We will be finding ways to contextualise what happened in 1999 by thinking about the social movements and protests that led up to it, and the subsequent wave of struggles that grew from it. And we will be unearthing and presenting our multimedia archive, and opening conversations in order to collectively think through, criticise, and celebrate a riotous day in the city.

New series of talks on the Long 1960s

 From Haymarket Books 

Social Histories of Revolution: the long 1960s

A series of events on an era of extraordinary global upheaval

Social Histories of Revolution: the Long 1960s explores the spirit of an era of extraordinary global upheaval, from the perspectives of those whose marches, strikes and movements shook the world.

Through a monthly series of public discussions, to be held in central London from September 2018 to June 2019, we hope to get beyond the usual famous figures to the “social history” that propelled them; that is, history as made and lived by the masses of ordinary people who entered the political stage in collective struggle.

Each session will be opened by historians or direct participants, whose research as academics and experience as militants gives them a unique perspective on the events we will discuss.

But these are not academic lectures; nor do the talks uphold any particular political or party “line”. The majority of each session will be given over to open debate, and we encourage people of all ages, backgrounds, and experience to attend, participate, and contribute. Through collective and equal discussion, we hope to reach a deeper understanding of revolution as the active participation of millions of people in changing history.

Registration for each session will open one month prior to the event. Follow our Facebook page for updates or see our website for more details. 

The discussion will usually (but not always) be held monthly at 6.30 pm, in central London, on a Tuesday or Thursday – although note that the first session is on a Monday! See below for confirmed sessions. We hope to see you there!

Programme

Monday 17 September, 2018, 6.30pm: The Sixties and ‘the Long 1968’: Social Transformation and Revolutionary Conjuncture. Neil Davidson, University of Glasgow. Khalili Lecture Theatre, SOAS, University of London, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG.

Tuesday 9 October, 2018, 6.30pm: The French Sixties and the Refusal of Work. Michael Seidman, University of North Carolina Wilmington. Marchmont Community Centre, 62 Marchmont Street, London WC1N 1AB.

Tuesday 23 October, 2018, 6.30pm: Workers in the Cuban Revolution. Steve Cushion, University of London. Marchmont Community Centre, 62 Marchmont Street, London WC1N 1AB.

Thursday 29 November, 2018: Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Iran, 1979. Torab Saleth, Revolutionary Socialist Tendency, interviewed by Simon Pirani. Venue TBC.

Thursday 13 December, 2018: “You’re not a worker, you’re a pair of hands.” The unofficial Leeds clothing strike of 1970. Liz Leicester, historian and trade union activist. Venue TBC.

Thursday 31 January, 2019: “She’s leaving home”: women’s sixties renaissance. Lynne Segal, Birkbeck, University of London. Venue TBC.

Thursday 28 February, 2019: China and the “cultural revolution”. Steve Smith, University of Oxford. Venue TBC.

Thursday 14 March, 2019: Revolutionary Protest in the Vietnam War Era. Alexandr Sedlmaier, University of Bangor. Venue TBC.

Thursday 28 March, 2019: The Feminist Movement in Italy in the 1960s. Maud Bracke, University of Glasgow. Venue TBC.

Thursday 25 April, 2019: The 1960s and Gay Liberation, Colin Wilson. Venue TBC.

Thursday 30 May, 2019: Revolutionary Change in Egypt. Brecht de Smet, Ghent University. Venue TBC.

Thursday 28 March, 2019: Socialism and Republicanism in Ireland in the 1960s-70s. Brian Hanley, University of Edinburgh. Venue TBC.

Other confirmed speakers (dates to be confirmed soon):

• The women’s movement in the 1960s. Sue Bruley, University of Portsmouth

Enquiries to: thelong1960s@gmail.com

The talks are co-hosted by the organising committee of last year’s highly successful Social Histories of the Russian Revolution and  Haymarket Books, a radical publisher of political literature.

Opportunity for Radical Historians (2): Another Call for Papers

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO: 

RADICAL HISTORIES/HISTORIES OF RADICALISM 

A MAJOR CONFERENCE AND PUBLIC HISTORY FESTIVAL 

1-3 July 2016

Queen Mary University of London

This international event commemorates twenty years since the death of the leftwing social historian Raphael Samuel and forty years since the founding of History Workshop Journal. The event will explore radical approaches to the past and histories of radical ideas and action through lectures, panels, performances, screenings, workshops and exhibitions.  

The event is hosted by Queen Mary University of London and organised by the Raphael Samuel History Centre (www.raphael-samuel.org.uk). It is intended to engage a diverse audience, and to bring together practitioners of many varieties of historical research, curatorship, writing and performance, from both inside and outside the academy. Other venues and partners for the event include Bishopsgate Institute, the London Metropolitan Archives and Tower Hamlets Local Studies Library.

The event will open on the evening of Friday 1^st July [NB 2016] with a plenary session ‘Radical history then and now’ involving radical historians, historians of radical movements and movement activists, past and present. It will close with a panel discussion on ‘Raphael Samuel and his Legacies’. In between these plenary sessions, there will be papers, film screenings, workshops, meetings and performances, all exploring a wide range of themes and ideas in radical history. We have grouped these themes as follows:

A. Radical movements:

History of radical movements and organisations; parties; left-wing activism; working-class radicalisms; national liberation struggles; popular mobilisations, past and present.

B. Diversity, difference and beyond:

Histories of feminism, gender and sexuality; histories and activism of race and ethnicity; disability politics.

C. Local and global histories:

Radical London; migration/movement of peoples; empire/post-colonial histories; globalisation; internationalism in a global age.

D. Culture, art and environment:

Heritage and public history; radical arts; environmental activism; housing politics.

E. History, policy, and the idea of politics:

Europe; government; elites; the move to the right; austerity; neo-liberalism; the politics of the academy

How to contribute:

Contributions that reflect on any of these themes in relation to any period of history are invited from academic and non-academic historians, and from those working or practising in the arts, education, heritage and culture, as well as activists campaigning in any of these areas.

The themes are indicative only, and we will consider proposals that fall outside them so long as these relate to the overall conference theme. We welcome offers of traditional academic papers but would particularly like to encourage proposals for other session formats likely to engage a varied audience, for example panel discussions, interactive hands-on workshops (for example, around primary source materials), photo-essays, exhibitions and performances. Contributions that focus on any period of history are welcome, as are contributions that offer reflections on methodologies (whether of the historian or the activist).

Please send a 250 - 500 word proposal, including a description of the format and content of the proposed paper, session, workshop, meeting, screenings, or performance. Include an abstract if appropriate, and the names of any other speakers or participants. AT THE TOP OF YOUR PROPOSAL PLEASE INDICATE THE CONFERENCE STRAND (A –E above) TO WHICH YOU THINK YOUR PROPOSAL RELATES MOST CLOSELY.

Please submit your proposal to Katy Pettit, Raphael Samuel History Centre administrator (k.pettit@uel.ac.uk) by Monday September 14^th. Proposers will be notified by November 30^th.

*** 

About the Raphael Samuel History Centre (RSHC)

Originally founded by the historian Raphael Samuel at the University of East London in 1996 as the Centre for East London History, and renamed after him in 2008, the Raphael Samuel History Centre has since expanded into a partnership between UEL, Birkbeck College University of London, Queen Mary University of London and Bishopsgate Institute in the City of London.

An extensive range of events, projects and research activities operates under our umbrella as we seek to stimulate debate about the continuing force of the past in the present. Our dynamic and engaged approach to history goes beyond the limits of the academy to include people of all ages and backgrounds.

The Centre is recognised nationally and internationally as the hub for intelligent debate that links history to present-day concerns and crosses boundaries between academic and public/popular history. We aim to put history in conversation both with other disciplines, and with contemporary activism and politics. In the spirit of Raphael Samuel and more broadly of the History Workshop movement, we are committed to a democratic, non-elitist and inclusive approach to history. We aim to support, nurture and encourage both new-career academic historians and those working in history outside academia. We provide a forum for debate about the place of history in public life, in schools, heritage organizations and the media.  We enter into partnership with other organizations – large and small – in order to stimulate interest in and discussion of history.

Opportunity for Radical Historians: Call for Papers

Before '68: The Left, activism and social movements in the long 1960s

Dates: 13 and 14 February 2016

Venue: School of History, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK

and hosted by UEA School of History in conjunction with the journal Socialist History and the Institute of Working Class History (Chicago).

The events of 1968, particularly those in France, have achieved a mythical status in both the memory and the historiography of the 1960s. For some, 1968 marked the end-point of a realignment of the European ‘New Left’. For others 1968 represented a student generation in revolt, and many of the first accounts which sought to explain the history and meaning of ’68 were written by that generation.

More recently historians have tried to demythologise ’68, looking both at less ‘glamourous’ locales and at the deeper histories of anti-colonial struggles and worker activism prior to the events of that year. The aim of this conference is to explore the diverse histories of social activism and left politics in Britain and elsewhere, and how they prepared the ground for and fed into ‘1968’. Themes might include, but are not limited to:

·         Anti-nuclear & peace movements

·         Civil Rights struggles

·         The Black Power movement

·         Anti-colonial politics

·         The activities of the Labour movement and the ‘traditional’ Left

·         The grassroots activism of the ‘New Left’

·         Far Left challenges: Trotskyism & Maoism

·         Campaigns around housing and the built environment

·         Campaigns around race and discrimination in the workplace and housing

·         Solidarity movements with struggles abroad (e.g. South Africa, Vietnam)

·         Campaigns for Homosexual Equality

·         Second Wave Feminism

We are seeking papers of 5000 to 10000 words on any aspects of left activism and social movements in the period preceding 1968 to be presented at the conference. Selected papers will be published in a special issue of the journal Socialist History. Attendance at the conference will be free of charge, but we ask that anyone wishing to attend registers in advance. 

Proposals for papers and any enquiries should be submitted to Ben Jones. 

Email: b.jones5@uea.ac.uk

 Deadline for proposals for papers: 31 October 2015

Original edition of an influential pamphlet