Vive La Revolution!

Victor Hugo and the Politics of  Les Misérables

With George Paizis

Tuesday 19th February, 6.30pm, £2

 Bookmarks, 1 Bloomsbury Street

 

First published in 1862, Les Misérables has been hugely successful as a novel, a musical and is now on the big screen. Over 60 million people have seen it in the theatre alone.
When Hugo died, over two million people lined the streets of Paris. Louise Michel, the revolutionary who led the Paris Commune, called herself Enjolras after the student leader of the revolution at the heart of the novel.
150 years later it still inspires audiences around the world to sing of revolution, barricades and a better world.
George Paizis will look at the politics of Victor Hugo and the way these have been portrayed on page, stage and screen. Join us for an evening of debate on revolution and barricades.
To register see here

Brunel seminar series

Brunel Social and Political Thought Research Group Seminar Series 2013

The Revolutionary Foundations of Modern Political Thought

This seminar series aims to explore the ways in which revolutionary politics, movements and events, and responses to them, have shaped and transformed the vocabulary of modern political thought. Brunel, national and international scholars will explore these themes in thinkers and movements ranging from the early modern period to contemporary radical political thought, in political and social theory, philosophy, film and literature.

Thursday 7th February 2013, 3pm, Howell Room 002
Matthijs Krul (Brunel University) 'The Value of Value: On the Significance of Concepts of Value for Economic History'

Wednesday 20th February 2013, 3pm, Gaskell Building Room 266
Andrea Bardin (Brunel University) 'From Man to Matter: Marx after Simondon'

Wednesday 27th February 2013, 4pm, Howell Room 002
Alex Callinicos (King’s College London) 'Deciphering Capital'

Thursday 7th March 2013, 3pm, Howell Room 002
Neil Davidson (University of Strathclyde) 'Political and Social Revolutions in Historical Perspective: from the Dutch Revolt to the Arab Spring'

Wednesday 13th March 2013, 1pm, Lecture Centre Room 264 (Co-sponsored by Politics and History Departmental Seminar)
Nathaniel Boyd (Brunel University) “Who Thinks Concretely?” Hegel’s Critique of Political Abstraction

Thursday 14th March 2013, 3pm, Howell Room 002
Alex Demirovic (University of Basel and Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung) 'Marxism and Foucault'

Wednesday 20th March 2013, 3pm, Lecture Centre Room 008
Chiara Bottici (The New School) 'Democracy and the Spectacle. On Rousseau’s Homeopathic Method'

29th-31st May, 2013, Brunel University, International Conference
(Organised by Filippo del Lucchese)
Machiavelli’s The Prince: Five Centuries of History, Conflict, and Politics
Speakers include Antonio Negri, Etienne Balibar, John McCormick, John Najemy and Warren Montag

All seminars take place at Brunel University. Directions to the campus can be found here:
http://www.brunel.ac.uk/about/campus/directions

For further information, please contact:

Peter Thomas <PeterD.Thomas@brunel.ac.uk>

Registration for Beyond a Boundary conference now open

Registration for the CLR James's Beyond a Boundary: 50th Anniversary conference from 9-11 May at the University of Glasgow is now open - please see here for details.
Edited to add: The programme is now online too. 

IWCE seminar and website launch

INDEPENDENT WORKING CLASS

EDUCATION SEMINAR and

Launching the Website

Saturday 2nd Feb 2013.

10- 4pm

 Millman Street Resource Centre,

50 Millman St., London, WC1N 3EW (entrance at rear of building)

book your place email iwceducation@yahoo.co.uk

£6.00 includes lunch. Pay on the day.

IWCE Network tries to : * develop a diverse range of education materials and approaches for trade union and other working class and progressive movement groups * respect the role of the working class in making history, and making  future .

10.00 Introduction(s): Aims of IWCE. Key questions:

10.30 Science, Technology and Class Struggle: Dave King, Bruce Robinson and Hank Roberts then

Dave Chapple on Solidarity, Joel Lazarus on Free Education Network political economic literacy then

Lunch

Louise Raw on The Matchwomen’s struggle: what can we learn for today? And Sheila Cohen   on The main trade union branch at Fords, Dagenham

14.30     Launching the Website/Advisory Panel.

15.45     Final Plenary and Plans

Next session in Salford Nick Pollard 'We Only Want the Earth@. Helen Ford Working class education holdings at Modern Records Centre, Warwick University

50 Years of EP Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class

A day conference organised by the People’s History Museum and the Working Class Movement Library
Saturday 13 April 2013, People's History Museum, Manchester

Time 10:00 - 16:45
Duration 6 hours 45 minutes
Cost £10/£5 unwaged
Edward Thompson’s The Making of the English Working Class appeared in 1963 and has become one of the most influential history texts of the 20th century.  It is still in print 50 years on, having survived challenges from Marxist, feminist and postmodern historians.  This day conference celebrates Thompson’s classic, and considers its reception, its critics, and why it endures.
Speakers will include the broadcaster Stuart Maconie, the former union leader Rodney Bickerstaffe, and Professor Adrian Randall from the University of Birmingham.

The conference will also include displays from the Working Class Movement Library and the Labour History Archive & Study Centre at the People’s History Museum.

Booking Requirements: Booking required, please contact 0161 838 9190 or info@phm.org.uk

Holocaust Memorial Day event at Bookmarks

Bookmarks presents a Holocaust Memorial Day special event:

Persecution & Resistance with Michael Rosen and John Rose
Saturday 26th January 1.30pm (booking advised), £2*

Michael Rosen
The acclaimed author, poet and former Children’s Laureate recounts his search to uncover the story of his family during the Holocaust.  Drawing on years of original research, Rosen presents a moving and personal story of exile and escape in a story that ends in the horrors of Auschwitz .

John Rose
The author and academic brings to life the story of Marek Edelman, leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943. Edelman is perhaps the most remarkable figure in what was the most significant act of self-defence by the Jews against the Nazi Holocaust. His story is a heroic cry for solidarity against racism and anti-Semitism.

Venue: Bookmarks Bookshop, 1 Bloomsbury Street , London , WC1B 3QE
Please book your place by contacting us at:
events@bookmarks.uk.com 020 7637 1848
Nearest tubes Tottenham Court Road and Holborn

*redeemable against any book purchase on the day

(Still) The Enemy Within: a film about the great miners' strike, 1984-85

(Still) The Enemy Within: The story of the Great 1984-85 Miners' Strike as told by the people who made it happen

(Still) The Enemy Within will tell the story of the 1984-85 miners’ strike through the voices of the miners that made it happen.

 "Although it feels like a life time away, the miners’ strike has never really left us behind, the ones who directly lived through it – who experienced the highs and the lows of fighting for the right to work. Realistically it’s never left the consciousness of this country. That is why it’s so important the right stories are told, the right voices are heard." 
  Louise Harrison, daughter of Keith Harrison, Askern Colliery NUM

 (Still) The Enemy Within will tell the story of the 1984-85 miners’ strike through the voices of some of the tens of thousands of young miners who followed their union president Arthur Scargill through a year of unprecedented struggle. It will describe the experiences of ordinary people – striking miners, their families and supporters across the country – who had no choice but to step on to the stage of history in one of the biggest industrial disputes Britain has ever seen.

Why did the miners fight? What was gained? What was lost? How did they change personally? What has happened to the communities and areas that were the battlegrounds for nearly a year? Finally, what has happened to those described as by Thatcher as `The Enemy Within' ?

We want to share a unique and compelling story, introducing the amazing and brave characters who played such a massive role in British history. We want to create an archive, we want to ensure that those who lost in strike do not lose their place in history. We want to create a tool, for all those who wish to engage with current social and political struggles, to learn from one of the greatest social and political struggles ever fought.

 To make this film needs money - please support their financial appeal