E P Thompson on the importance of socialist history groups

 
I found a fascination in getting to the bottom of everything, in the sources themselves.  I got this fascination with the archives.  I suppose this plus the critical, comradely help of one or two people in particular, especially Dona Torr, and participation in the Communist Party Historians' Group, in which we had theoretical discussions all the time - this made me into a historian.

The formal and informal exchange with fellow socialists helped me more than anything I found in Cambridge University.  This is not to say that one can't, fortunately, sometimes find something in a university, but it is to emphasize that socialist intellectuals ought to help each other.  We should never be wholly dependent upon institutions, however benevolent, but should maintain groups in which theory is discussed, and history is discussed and in which people criticise each other.  This principle of being able to give and to receive sharp criticism is very important...

What we want to do is to get back to a collective converse again.  We need our radical history journals and everything ... what socialists must never do is allow themselves to become wholly dependent upon established institutions - publishing houses, commercial media, universities, foundations.  I don't mean that these institutions are repressive - certainly, much that is affirmative can be done within them.  But socialist intellectuals much occupy some territory that is, without qualification, their own: their own journals, their own theoretical and practical centers - places where no one works for grades or for tenure but for the transformation of society; places where criticism and self-criticism are fierce, but also mutual help and the exchange of theoretical and practical knowledge; places that prefigure in some ways the society of the future.

EP Thompson, interviewed in 1976, from MAHRO (ed) Visions of History (Manchester, 1983), pp13-14,  22-23

Harry Ratner and Lionel Cliffe

Sad news about the recent passing of two socialists:

Harry Ratner, author of Reluctant Revolutionary and supporter of the London Socialist Historians Group, died peacefully in his sleep in the early hours of Wednesday morning 23rd October. His funeral will take place on Thursday 7th November at Markeaton Crematorium, Main Chapel at 2.00pm.  As was his wish there will be a non-religious celebration of his life. His wife, Olive has asked that in lieu of flowers, a donation can be made, if you choose, to Breast Cancer Awareness. Donations can be made through the undertakers. A.W. Lymn at the Ilkeston office, 01159 444 121 where Scot will take your call. Or at Markeaton on the day.

 

Lionel Cliffe, Emeritus Professor at Leeds University, also passed away on 23 October. Lionel had international stature for his teaching, research and policy analysis of African political economy.   He was the founder of the first centre of development studies in Dar es Salaam that developed among other things new and radical analysis of Tanzania's socialist development.  Since retiring in 2001 he  continued to be generous with his time and support for colleagues working within the sphere of African political economy and African politics. He was working on an analysis of land reform in Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa.  He was also a supporter of Yorkshire cricket club, and wrote about its history and the question of racism  for the recent collection Capitalism and Sport.  Lionel will be cremated at Grenoside Crematorium, 5 Skew Hill Lane, Grenoside, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S35 8RZ  on Monday 4th November at 12.30, followed by a celebration of his life, with reflections from friends and family, at Wortley Hall, Wortley Village, Wortley S35 7DB  from 1.30pm.  All those who knew Lionel are welcome to both or either event.

Family flowers only.  Donations in Lionel's memory may be given to the 'Lionel Cliffe Memorial Research Scholarship', (mark donations accordingly please) to Co-operative Bank, sort code 089075, account no. 50181461.  Plates for donations will be available at both venues.

Troubled Island

Taster perfomances of Troubled Island in London tonight and 5 nights in November

 

For a couple of years now Thee Black Swan Theatre & Opera Company has been working towards making the sound of William Grant Still's opera Troubled Island live again. This opera, written in 1936 in collaboration with Langston Hughes, chronicles the life of Dessalines, leader of the Haitian Revolution alongside Toussaint L'Ouverture, who went on to lead the newly independent nation of Haiti after 1804. The opera itself has a troubled past, with writer and composer falling foul of both racism and McCarthyism.

 

A taster of this grand opera is being performed in London on six occassions on the last day of October and five nights into November, as follows:

Upstairs at the Gatehouse in Highgate, 7.30pm

Thursday,  31st October, Friday, 1st November and Saturday 2nd November

Purchase Tickets

 

Catford Broadway,  8pm

Friday, 8th November and Saturday 9th November

Purchase Tickets

The Wilberforce Theatre, The Museum of London, Docklands E14 4AL,  7.30pm

Sunday, November 10th

Purchase Tickets

With support from Judith Anne Still and Arts Council (England).

CfP: Manchester Social Movements Conference - April 2014

SOCIAL MOVEMENTS CONFERENCE  - CALL FOR PAPERS

From 1995 to 2013, Manchester Metropolitan University hosted a series of very successful annual international conferences on 'ALTERNATIVE FUTURES and POPULAR PROTEST'.

We're very happy to announce that the Nineteenth AF&PP Conference will be held, between Monday 14^th April and Wednesday 16^th April 2014.

The Conference rubric remains as in previous years. The aim is to explore the dynamics of popular movements, along with the ideas which animate their activists and supporters and which contribute to shaping their fate. Given the significance of the mass movements in numbers of countries during the early years of this decade, we especially welcome papers discussing these – while no less welcoming suggestions on other topics.

Reflecting the inherent cross-disciplinary nature of the issues, previous participants (from over 60 countries) have come from such specialisms as sociology, politics, cultural studies, social psychology, economics,  history and geography.  The Manchester conferences have also been notable for discovering a fruitful and friendly meeting ground between activism and academia.

CALL FOR PAPERS

We invite offers of papers relevant to the conference themes.  Papers should address such matters as: 

* contemporary and historical social movements and popular protests

* social movement theory

* utopias and experiments

* ideologies of collective action

* etc.

To offer a paper, please contact either of the conference convenors with a brief abstract:  

EITHER Colin Barker, Dept. of Sociology  

OR Mike Tyldesley, Dept. of Politics and Philosophy  

Manchester Metropolitan University  

Geoffrey Manton Building, Rosamond Street West  

Manchester M15 6LL, England  

email: c.barker@mmu.ac.uk  

Tel: M. Tyldesley  0161 247 3460   

email: m.tyldesley@mmu.ac.uk  

Fax: 0161 247 6769 (+44 161 247 6769)  

(Wherever possible, please use email, especially as Colin Barker is a retired gent. Surface mail and faxes should only be addressed to Mike Tyldesley)  

Talk with Keith Flett on independent working class education before the Plebs

News from Nowhere Club

http://www.raymondwilliamsfoundation.org.uk/NfNHome.html

8pm Saturday 12 October

Keith Flett

on

Before the Plebs

Independent Working Class Education

in the Nineteenth Century

They sought not the useful knowledge of a conventional education but really useful knowledge to take on capital. We look at this lost tradition of radical education in the working class and reflect on what it might mean for today.

News from Nowhere Club

The Epicentre,
Leytonstone,
E11 4LJ

http://www.raymondwilliamsfoundation.org.uk/NfNfindus.html

info@newsfromnowhereclub.org.uk

0208 555 5248

07443 480 509

Ford Maguire society events in Leeds

Ford Maguire Society forthcoming events

Cyril Pearce (University of Leeds), author of Comrades in Conscience is speaking about War Resisters in the First World War on Wednesday, Oct 9th October at 6pm Broadcasting Place (next to Old Friends' Meeting House, Woodhouse Lane), Leeds Metropolitan University (BPAG10)

Toussaint Louverture - book launch of C.L.R. James's 1934 play about the Haitian Revolution Toussaint Louverture with various speakers including editor Christian Høgsbjerg, Joe Williams (who will read an extract from the play) and Arthur France - Wednesday, 23rd October 2013 at 7pm Leeds West Indian Centre

Global EP Thompson conference - follow live broadcast

We invite you to participate in the upcoming conference at Harvard, Oct. 3-5, "The Global E. P. Thompson: Reflections on the Making of the English Working Class after Fifty Years." We will be hosting a truly global conversation among scholars, and we invite you to join us, either in person or online.
 We will be broadcasting live; please spread the word and tune-in, October 3-5th. The Broadcast will start at 4 PM EST on Thursday, October 3rd, and conclude on Saturday October 5th at 1 PM, EST. ( http://www.ustream.tv/channel/global-e-p-thompson-conference-harvard-university-october-3-5-2013 ) Broadcast viewers will be able to submit questions and participate via the Ustream Channel.
 Full Program: http://studyofcapitalism.harvard.edu/global-thompson-program< http://studyofcapitalism.harvard.edu/global-thompson-program#.UjpSucabMas> Follow the live broadcast ustream channel: http://bit.ly/18cpE73
We look forward to your participation!

Fifty years ago E. P. Thompson published The Making of the English Working Class, one of the most influential social history works ever. Its approach to the history of common people, its arguments and its methods came to influence several generations of historians and others all over the world. To trace Thompson’s influences, and with it the larger story of the varied approaches to social history that have come out of them, the Program on the Study of Capitalism and the Weatherhead Initiative on Global History at Harvard University seek to initiate a global conversation among researchers across the humanities and social sciences to reflect critically on Thompson's impact on the writing of history and his enduring significance for future research. At a time of global economic crises, as scholarship returns to themes of class, inequality and political economy with renewed interest, urgency, and moral purpose, the fiftieth anniversary of the Making of the English Working Class offers a welcome opportunity to both critically reflect on Thompson's scholarship and consider the ways in which his ideas, methods and commitments can still inspire intellectual frameworks and research programs that speak to present global problems.

 Edited to add:

Celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of E P Thompson’s Making of the English Working Class- Sat 16 November 2013, Halifax by Fiona Cosson

Join the Society for the Study of Labour History at Halifax Square Chapel for a lecture and discussion on the life and work of E. P. Thompson (1924-1993), leading radical historian and author of the seminal The Making of the English Working Class (1963) on Saturday 16 November 2013. Professor Bryan D. Palmer (Trent University, Ontario) will deliver a key note lecture on ‘History as Argument: The Contrarian Analytics of The Making of the English Working Class’ followed by a roundtable discussion chaired by Professor Neville Kirk. Panelists will include: Professor John Belchem, Professor Malcolm Chase, Professor Joe White, Professor Paul Pickering, Dr Peter Gurney, Professor D. Palmer and Dr Matthew Roberts. In the afternoon Dr John Hargreaves will lead a local history walk to the house where the Thompsons lived where a plaque will be unveiled.

Full details at http://www.sslh.org.uk/perch/resources/1379416944-ep-thompson-conference-flyer.pdf