Jamaica and the Caribbean

Jamaica and the Caribbean: Beyond the Boundary
Fri 2 Nov - Sun 4 Nov at the Watershed, Bristol
 
 This three day celebration of 50 years of independence for Jamaica and Trinidad 

and Tobago kicks off with a one-day public conference featuring guests including 

Rupert Lewis (Professor in Political Thought, University of the West Indies, 

Jamaica) and Gavin Nicholas (High Commissioner for Trinidad and Tobago.)

 Join them for a reflection on the political, cultural and economic development 

of these countries since independence but also their impact on the Caribbean 

Diaspora in Bristol and the UK.
 

Over the weekend, there will be talks (by Colin Grant and Andrea Stuart), 

poetry and screenings including Blood and Fire, a history of Jamaica’s struggle 

for independence and Omnibus: Beyond a Boundary, a reflection by the great 

Trinidadian intellectual CLR James on the influence of cricket on Caribbean 

society. Sit back and relax on Sunday with Sounds from the Caribbean; a 

double-bill of Calypso Dreams featuring Harry Belafonte, The Mighty 

Sparrow and Singing Sandra followed by Reggae, the first feature-length 

film financed by Black people in Britain.
 
Co-curated by Dr Edson Burton and Dr Peter Clegg presented by Watershed 

and UWE in partnership with Festival of Ideas and Afrika Eye Festival.
 

Further details including on how to book tickets can be found 

at: http://www.watershed.co.uk/whatson/season/216/jamaica-and-the-caribbean-beyond-the-boundary/

The American Civil War in London

THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR IN LONDON
Monday 15 October 2012
10.30am-4.00pm
£10 – bring a picnic
Booking essential: Call 020 7332 3851 or see http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/archives-and-city-history/london-metropolitan-archives/Pages/default.aspx 

From the start of the American Civil War the seceding Southern states were
attempting to gain independence from the Federal government. Lacking
manpower and munitions necessary to win against the heavily-populated and
industrial North, the Confederacy looked to Europe for intervention and
realised Britain was most likely to offer help owing to its need for Southern
cotton.

As a result of this, London was flooded by agents and propagandists from
both the South and the Union, engaging in a war of words, as diplomats and
journal editors tried to win the ear and the favour of the British establishment.
Dr Tom Sebrell will be giving a morning presentation on the propaganda war
and its political intrigues, followed by a walking tour of the historic sites which
were home to the journals and historical figures around the City.

PROGRAMME
10.30am – 1pm
Talk and presentation by Dr Tom Sebrell of Queen Mary
University, London.

2pm – 4pm
Guided walk led by Dr Sebrell (see http://www.acwlondon.org/
for more details).

LONDON METROPOLITAN ARCHIVES, 40, NORTHAMPTON ROAD, LONDON, EC1R 0HB

Reminder - Upcoming events at Bookmarks

...........................................................................................................
European Revolutionaries and Algerian Independence 1954-1962  with Ian Birchall
Thursday 27 September, 6.30pm, £2*

2012 marks the fiftieth anniversary of Algerian independence. Ian Birchall introduces the first full account of how revolutionary socialists gave solidarity with the Algerian Independence struggle. From encouraging desertion from the French Foreign Legion to the actions of militants at Renault-Billancourt.

Venue: Bookmarks Bookshop, 1 Bloomsbury Street, WC1B 3QE
Please contact us to reserve a place on 020 7637 846 or events@bookmarks.uk.com
*£2  redeemable against any book purchase on the night.

............................................................................................................................
Fighting Back: The American Working Class in the 1930s with John Newsinger
Thursday 4 October, 6.30pm, £2*

Trade unionists faced beatings, red-scares and murder in the private police state of 1920s and 30s America - yet they provide a lesson in courage, militancy and creativity that we can learn from today. John Newsinger, author of The Blood Never Dried: A People's History of the British Empire, provides fresh insights into these turbulent years in his new book Fighting Back. 

Venue: Bookmarks Bookshop, 1 Bloomsbury Street, WC1B 3QE
Please contact us to reserve a place on 020 7637 846 or events@bookmarks.uk.com
*£2  redeemable against any book purchase on the night. 

SHS meeting on The Partisan Coffee House

Reminder of Socialist History Society meeting.


Tuesday 25 September

2012 A. L. MORTON MEMORIAL LECTURE - Michael Berlin (Birkbeck College, specialist on the social history of early modern London and the British left), speaks on The Partisan Coffee House: a micro history of the New Left?

Time: 7.00 pm; Venue: Bishopsgate Institute, 230 Bishopsgate, London EC2. Admission free, all welcome

Marxism and Revolution Today

This weekend - Doors open at 10am – You can register on the door

International Socialism journal weekend school

Marxism and Revolution Today

(please note new venue)

London Welsh Centre, 157-163 Gray's Inn Road , Holborn, London WC1X 8UE

(near Kings Cross St Pancras station) http://goo.gl/maps/VQY9h

Saturday and Sunday 22-23 September 2012

In 1987, Bookmarks published Revolutionary Rehearsals, a collection of essays on France 1968, Chile 1972-3, Portugal 1974-5, Iran 1978-9 and Poland 1980-1. Were a “second edition” to appear a quarter century later, what new experiences would need to be taken into account? This weekend school will explore some aspects of the revolutionary experience of the past 25 years.

Outline programme

Saturday 22 September

Registration 10.00-10.30 a.m.

Session 1. 10.30a.m. - 12.30 p.m.

Introductory themes:

Neil Davidson – “Transformations of Social Revolution: from the Year One Thousand to the Arab Spring”

Alex Callinicos – “Old and new in today’s revolutionary wave”

Session 2. 1.30-3.30 p.m.

The Arab Spring 2011-12:

Anne Alexander – “From people’s revolution to permanent revolution?”

Dalia Mostafa – “The Egyptian Revolution.”

Session 3. 4.00-6.00 p.m.

Eastern Europe 1989 and the “colour revolutions” 2003-5:

Gareth Dale – " Eastern Europe : Why was 1989 not 1980?"

Megan Trudell – “The colour revolutions: made in the USA?”

Sunday 23 September

Session 4. 10.30 a.m. -12.30 p.m.

South Africa

Claire Ceruti – “Apartheid and its aftermath - mechanisms of deflection and their failure”

Session 5. 1.30-3.30 p.m.

Latin America, 2000-2012:

Jeffery Webber – "A Revolution Contained: Combined Liberation Struggles in Bolivia , 2000-2012"

Mike Gonzales – “ Latin America : revolutions stalled?”

Session 6. 4.00-6.00 p.m.

Contemporary problems of revolutionary politics:

John Rose – “The significance of Lenin’s ‘Left-wing communism’ today”

Jonny Jones – “Radical and anti-capitalist movements since the fall of the Berlin Wall”

Colin Barker – “The challenge of socialist revolution”

The cost of the weekend school will be £20 (£10 unwaged)

For further details of the weekend school, and to be included in the Marx-Rev listserv, please contact Colin Barker barcolin@gmail.com

March for London Met

March for London Met, Friday 28 September, 1pm, ULU, Malet Street

London Met students and unions are calling a major protest, marching to the Home office next Friday 28 September.

Friday 28th September at 1pm, assemble outside University of London Union (ULU), Malet Street, WC1E 7HY. We will then march to the UKBA, Marsham Street, SW1P 4DF.

UCU Left conference

Defending Post-16 Education in an Era of Austerity

A conference of resistance, Saturday 22 September, Central London.

Speakers include: John McDonnell MP, Melanie Cooke Action for ESOL & Kings college UCU, Owen Jones author of chavs, Zita Holbourne PCS NEC and co-chair of BARAC, Professor Andrew Mcgettigan, Alex Kenny NUT NEC, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Jane Aitchinson PCS DWP Group President 2004-12 Y, Professor Ken Spours, Kostas Skordoulis lecturer at Athens University.

The Tory led coalition government has made clear its intent. It wishes to dismantle the “state monopoly” in education. Free schools, academies, and the privatisation of Higher, Further and Adult Education are being pursued with full vigour by this government.
Its goals are to once again make Higher Education a place for the most privileged, while turning Further and Adult Education into sectors that simply train working class people in low-level skills for non-existent jobs.
Alongside this reshaping of education, our pay, pensions, jobs and conditions of service are being attacked.
Rises in bullying and workload are increasing stress levels among lecturers, leading many to take time off work due to serious illness.
The autumn looks set to see a significant development of the resistance to the government’s austerity policies.
The TUC-called demonstration on 20 October will see tens of thousands take to the streets and more coordinated strike action among public sector unions in defence of pay and pensions.
The tide has begun to turn against governments of austerity. From Spain to Greece, working people are saying no to cuts. We are a part of an international movement against austerity.
This conference will be debating alternatives to the coalition’s cuts and privatisation agenda, and mapping out the next steps in the campaign to defend post-16 education. Register online here

Autumn LSHG seminars

Socialist History seminars - more tbc

Convenors: Dr Keith Flett, Dr David Renton, Dr John Geoffrey Walker

Venue: Gordon Room (G34), Senate House, Ground floor, Institute of Historical Research
Time: Monday, 5.30pm

Autumn Term 2012

Date	Seminar details
15 October	George Paizis (UCL) Retranslating Victor Serge's Memoirs of a Revolutionary
5 November	Dan Gordon (Edge Hill) Immigrants & Intellectuals. May 1968 and the rise of anti-racism in France Please note:  this session takes place in the Bedford Room (G37)
12 November	Chris Blakey Georges Cheron and the 1936 Hotchkiss factory soviet
10 December	Keith Flett History of Riots project: research update

Paul Gilroy on The Value of Multiculture

National Union of Journalists, Black History Month celebration 

Claudia Jones Memorial Lecture
 
Monday 22 October, 7pm at Thomson Reuters, Canary Wharf, London E14
 

This lecture will be given by Professor Paul Gilroy who is currently

Professor of English and American Literature at Kings College London 

on the theme of The Value of Multiculture. Well known for his writings 

about the culture and history of the African diaspora in the western hemisphere, 

Professor Gilroy is the author of the seminal work, 

'There Ain't No Black In the Union Jack': The Cultural Politics of Race and Nation, 

1987.
 
 
All welcome. Registrations for this lecture should be send to 

lenac@nuj.org.uk

PS - Paul Gilroy is speaking on 'There Ain't No Black In the Union Jack' Revisited 

this Saturday in London as part of the 10th anniversary celebration of

Love Music Hate Racism. 

Film showings: Battle of Orgreave / Who Polices the Police?

 

The Battle of Orgreave

Sertuc film club Screening & Panel Discussion

Wednesday 26 September 2012

7 – 9.30pm (Doors open 6pm)

TUC Congress House, Great Russell Street

(62 mins) Jeremy Deller / Mike Figgis

Jeremy Deller is a British artist whose work typically involves collaborations with large groups of individuals from diverse backgrounds. On June 17, 2001, in Orgreave, South Yorkshire, Deller staged an historical re-enactment of the violent clashes that took place in June 1984 between strikers from the Orgreave coking plant and the police. The battle marked a turning point in the Thatcher government’s efforts to overcome the political opposition posed by the trade-union movement. Many of the people who were part of the original clash - both striking miners and policemen - participated in the reconstruction (although sometimes in reverse roles), which was recorded by filmmaker Mike Figgis.

PLEASE REGISTER FOR SCREENING - FREE ADMISSION

sertucevents@tuc.org.uk / 020 7467 1220

* Please specify any disability access and other facilities/needs

*****

Garden Court Chambers in conjunction with the Institute of Race Relations

Screening of Ken Fero’s: Who Polices the Police?

Followed by panel discussion. Speakers include:

Ken Fero

Rigg family

Leslie Thomas (Rigg Family Barrister)

Friday 5 October 2012, 6-9pm

Garden Court Chambers,

57-60 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, WC2A 3LJ

Nearest Tube: Holborn

Tickets: £10

Please visit website to book tickets:

http://www.irr.org.uk/events/who-polices-the-police/

Sean Rigg dies in a caged area of Brixton Police Station in August 2008 and the Independent Police Complaint Commission (IPCC) is called in to investigate. Sean’s family are shocked at the death and this soon turns to anger when the IPCC makes error after error in its inquiry – raising the question as to whether it is incompetence or collusion. Sean’s family begin a four- year struggle to investigate the death themselves and in the process ask ‘Who Polices The Police?’

Book launch for new issue of Revolutionary History

Meeting to Launch Vol. 10 No. 4 of Revolutionary History
'European Revolutionaries and Algerian Independence 1954 – 1962'
This volume considers the course of the Algerian War 1954-1962, and the response of the French and European left. It gives the fullest account in English of the role of the revolutionary left in giving political and practical solidarity to the Algerian liberation struggle. It presents substantial extracts from Sylvain Pattieu’s Les camarades des frères (Paris 2002), and gives the fullest account of the role of Trotskyists in this period, drawing on documents and interviews with participants.

Speakers: Ian Birchall
Fritz Keller (Vienna – author of Internationalism in Practice: The Austrian Left and the Algerian Resistance.)
John Plant

Thursday 27 September, 6.30pm, at Bookmarks, 1 Bloomsbury Street, London, WC1B 3QE: entry £2 redeemable against any purchase on the night.

Call 020 7637 1848 or e-mail events@bookmarks.uk.com to reserve your place.

Mike Berlin: The Partisan Coffee House of 1958

Mike Berlin: The Partisan Coffee House of 1958
Thursday September 6th, 6.30pm

Firebox London 106-108 Cromer Street, London, WC1H8BZ, United Kingdom

Firebox is the Partisan Coffee House of the 21st Century.

Historian Mike Berlin presents a historical tour of the Partisan and its political context, in a timely event just before Firebox's grand launch.

Established in 1958, the Partisan Coffee House in Soho was the central hub of the New Left.A space for ideas, discussion and often heated debate, it was short-lived but central to a creative and visionary political force.Founded by Raphael Samuel, a young radical historian, the Partisan was the heart of a radical left during this era of events such as the Suez Crisis and the Hungarian Revolution.

With an excellent exhibition of original archive materials including the brilliant panorama documentary and BBC radio program this event will have an air of the late 50′s so expect a few lovely surprises.

£5 suggested donation, includes free drink.Doors open at 6.30pm for refreshments, event starts promptly at 7pm.

Edited to add:
Reminder of Socialist History Society meeting.


Tuesday 25 September

2012 A. L. MORTON MEMORIAL LECTURE - Michael Berlin (Birkbeck College, specialist on the social history of early modern London and the British left), speaks on The Partisan Coffee House: a micro history of the New Left?

Time: 7.00 pm; Venue: Bishopsgate Institute, 230 Bishopsgate, London EC2. Admission free, all welcome

Events at Bookmarks

Events at Bookmarks

 

This week come and hear journalist, author and documentary film maker Andre Vltcheck talk about his laterst investigative work on Indonesia.

Indonesia: Archipelago of Fear with Andre Vltchek

Thursday 6 September, 6.30pm, £2*
 

The Cinema of Globalisation & Labour with Tom Zaniello

Thursday 13 September, 6.30pm, £2*

As part of the London Labour Film Festival, American author Tom Zaniello will be discussing radical cinema with a focus on films addressing globalisation and the working class wordwide.
 

This week the Guardian magazine ran a 4 page extract from Matt Kennard about how the US Army recruited neo-Nazis and people unfit to serve in the military in order to boost numbers of troops for the war on terror. Come and hear him talk at Bookmarks on Tuesday 18th September:

Irregular Army: How the US Military Recruited Neo-Nazis, Gang Members and Criminals to fight the War on Terror with Matt Kennard

Tuesday 18 September, 6.30pm, £2*

*£2 redeemable against any purchase on the night.
 

Prior booking is recommended for all events. Please email events@bookmarks.uk.com to book your place, or see the website for a full list http://www.bookmarksbookshop.co.uk/
 

For any Bookmarks information or opening hours phone 020 7637 1848 or go to www.bookmarksbookshop.co.uk or email enquiries@bookmarks.uk.com or write to Bookmarks, 1 Bloomsbury Street, London, WC1B 3QE