Seminar: Alex Callinicos on the Crisis in the Eurozone

Middlesex University Seminar Series:


The Crisis in the Eurozone and its implications for Britain

with Professor Alex Callinicos

Thursday 14th June

Room: C207, Middlesex University, The Burroughs, Hendon, London NW4 4BT (nearest tube Hendon Central)

Time: 4:30 - 6:00pm

As part of the Business School keynote speakers series, there will be a 30 minute presentation on: 'The crisis in the eurozone and its implications for Britain', followed by questions and answers from the audience.

Alex Callinicos is the Professor of European Studies at King's College London and editor of International Socialism. For many years he taught political philosophy at the University of York. His most recent books are The Resources of Critique, Imperialism and Global Political Economy, and Bonfire of Illusions. He is currently working on a book about Marx's Capital.

Due to high demand advance booking is recommended. Please contact Elena Karoullas: E.Karoullas@mdx.ac.uk to reserve a place.

Northern Radical History Network conference

[Recently I came across the following details of a conference for a 'Northern Radical History Network' event, which raises the interesting ongoing question about 'socialist history' outside of London, and particularly 'up north', and its possibilities and potentialities. If anyone has info on other such events etc - or more info on the Northern Radical History Network (eg contact details) please get in touch or comment below. Thanks]

NORTHERN RADICAL HISTORY NETWORK

NRHN Agenda: Saturday, 30 June 2012, Town Hall Tavern, Tib Lane, Manchester

1100-1115 Arrivals

1115-1300 MORNING SESSION - Learning from each other

1115-1145 Round Table: introductions, reports, projects, news sharing by groups and individuals

1145-1215 Organisational Issues: website and email list administration; organisation of future meetings; future events and projects, AOB

1215-1300 Steve Higginson: Writing on the Wall and other Liverpool projects

1300-1400 LUNCH

1400-1600 AFTERNOON SESSION: Ideas and Arguments

1400-1500 Paul Salveson: Socialism with a Northern Accent

1500-1545 Martin Bashforth: Can Family History be Radical History?;

1545-1600 Meeting Review, Matters Arising, Future Activities

Edited to add: See also the West Yorkshire Socialist Historians Group

Reminder: Ruth First - A revolutionary life

A Revolutionary Life: Ruth First, 1925-1982
7 June 2012, 10:00 - 19:00.
MacMillan Hall, Senate House, Bloomsbury, London
Speakers: Justice Albie Sachs, Gillian Slovo, Shula Marks, Bridget O'Laughlin

Ruth First was an anti-apartheid activist, investigative journalist, and scholar. First worked her entire life to end apartheid in South Africa; writing in 1969, she explained how her life was dedicated 'to the liberation of Africa for I count myself an African, and there is no cause I hold dearer'. Her knowledge of the continent was phenomenal and she knew many of the continent's leading political figures: Nelson Mandela, Ben Bella, Oginda Odinga. First was an influential figure, who saw activism, solidarity work (for the anti-apartheid struggle) and her research and writing as inextricably linked. She was exiled from South Africa in 1964, with her husband, the prominent South African communist Joe Slovo and their children. In 1982 ,while working in Mozambique, Ruth First was killed by a letter bomb sent by South African secret service. 2012 is the thirtieth anniversary of Ruth First's murder. The Institute of Commonwealth Studies (ICS) and the Commonwealth Advisory Bureau are holding a one-day celebration of Ruth First's extraordinary life and work. The event is part of year long project that is digitising some of Ruth First's papers and books held at the ICS. This event is a joint initiative between the Commonwealth Advisory Bureau and ICwS and is sponsored by ROAPE

Bill Morris's Inspirations

National Portrait Gallery
Inspirations: Lord Bill Morris
7 June 2012, 19:00 Ondaatje Wing Theatre
Tickets: £5 (£4 concessions and Gallery Supporters)
Book online or call 020 7306 0055
Bill Morris, former General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union, talks about the people who have shaped and influenced him including London Chartist leader William Cuffay, and politicians Barbara Castle and Ernest Bevin. Bill Morris was the first black General Secretary of a trade union in England. An influential leader, he has been active on issues including the minimum wage, access to education, equal opportunities and the development of policies and services for women and young members. Born in Bombay, Jamaica, he arrived in England in 1954 and joined the Transport and General Workers Union. He worked his way up from officer to become General Secretary in 1991. Following his retirement, in 2004, Morris was appointed to chair an inquiry addressing employment issues in the London Metropolitan Police.

Wandsworth Heritage Festival

Details of Wandsworth Heritage Festival, which began on 26 May and ends on 10 June, can be found by following the links here Highlights include: Friday 1 June 6.30pm 'Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: the life of the Black British musician (1875-1912)' Born of an English mother and African father, he became famous at an early age with his Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast which became a major work for decades of British choirs. He wrote a wide range of music, including setting poems as songs, and conducted. His tours of the USA were a major success. He was also a supporter of black rights and a friend of Battersea’s Progressive and Labour activist John Archer. Speaker: Jeffrey Green, author of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: A Musical Life (2011) Battersea Library, 265 Lavender Hill, SW11. Free. No need to book.

Opposition to Royal Jubilees - LSHG seminar reminder

London Socialist Historians Group seminar

                                       The classic 1977 Stuff the Jubilee Badge

'Opposition to Royal Jubilees from Queen Victoria to Queen Elizabeth':
Keith Flett & Sherrl Yanowitz
Monday 28 May
 5.30pm
Room G34
Institute of Historical Research
South Block
Senate House
University of London
Malet St WC1
All welcome
 
Other upcoming seminars
Monday June 11th 'Was the Chartist Movement anti-semitic?': Prof. Denis Paz

Monday June 25th 'Class, Corruption and the London Olympics 2012': David Renton

C.L.R. James's Beyond a Boundary: 50th anniversary conference

C.L.R. James’Beyond a Boundary: 50th Anniversary Conference  
University of Glasgow.  
Friday 10th to Saturday 11th May, 2013 (with an opening event on Thursday 9th May)
Confirmed keynote speakers: Mike Brearley (former England Test captain), Wai Chee Dimock (Yale) and Robert A. Hill (UCLA and C.L.R. James's Literary Executor).

Regularly cited as one of the great sports books of the twentieth century, C.L.R. James’ Beyond a Boundary (1963) is, by his own famous definition, about far more than cricket. Part-autobiography, part-historical study and part-political-call-to-arms written against the backdrop of the decolonisation struggles, James’ reflections on sport in the Caribbean reach out into a critical account of racism and imperialism, into wider questions of aesthetics and popular culture, and into the struggle for revolutionary social change which was the enduring concern of his life. Crucially, James insisted that such questions were not simply of concern to academics or to experts, but were also a central part of what drew ordinary men and women to sport.

Much loved, and widely read, James’ study has also been the subject of searching criticism: he has been accused, among other things, of a failure of critical judgement in relation to cricket’s role in the moral framework of empire, of a lack of attentiveness to gendered inequalities, and of a naïve faith in the spontaneity of popular political resistance.

This conference is convened on the occasion of the 50^th anniversary of the publication of Beyond a Boundary, with the intention of both celebrating and questioning, drawing out the book’s intellectual legacies and identifying the issues it leaves unanswered. 

*** Registration for this event is now open ***

We have sought to keep fees for the event as low as possible, in order to ensure that it is open to as wide an audience as possible. In order to reduce administrative costs, therefore, we are running the registration process ourselves. So, to register for the event please send an e-mail with your name and contact details to Andrew.Smith.2@glasgow.ac.uk

The cost of attendance at the event will be £30 (£10 for students or those without a wage). As we do not have administrative support, we would ask that delegates pay this when they arrive on the first day of the conference.

Already confirmed keynote speakers for the conference are Mike Brearley (former England Test captain and previously President of the British Psychoanalytic Society), Wai Chee Dimock (Department of English, Yale) and  Robert A. Hill (History, UCLA and C.L.R. James's Literary Executor). 

We have had a tremendous response to the original call for papers, and the diversity of those who have submitted papers reflects, unsurprisingly, the diversity and internationalism of James' own outlook. We are looking forward, therefore, to inviting speakers from all over the world to Glasgow in May, including academics, film-makers, sports-writers, activists and many others.

In a slight change to the originally publicised programme, we now intend that the conference will begin on the night of Thursday 9th May with a screening of Mike Dibb's film of 'Beyond a Boundary', as well as his 1984 interview between James and Stuart Hall. Mike Dibb will be introducing these films himself, and this will be followed by a drinks reception.

More details of the programme, and information about local accommodation etc will be posted on the conference website shortly:
www.glasgow.ac.uk/beyondaboundary

To be added to the conference mailing list, please e-mail the address given above.

Conference organisers: Dr. Dave Featherstone (Human Geography, Glasgow); Dr. Chris Gair (English Literature, Glasgow); Dr. Christian Høgsbjerg (History, Leeds Metropolitan); Dr. Andy Smith (Sociology, Glasgow).

Edited to add: The Programme is now online.