Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival 2010

Tony Benn on the Tolpuddle Festival

"I’ve been coming to Tolpuddle for several years now and it’s grown in an enormous way. At the heart of the festival is a really important event, namely the formation of the agricultural workers’ union in the West Country that really did change the course of history.

I make it the turning point from feudalism to capitalism/socialism because when the Martyrs came back from Australia people realised that while Parliament remained as it was, they couldn’t change the law, so they campaigned for the vote and the Chartists and the Suffragettes came out of that.

Tolpuddle reminds us we have a tradition as long as the powers that be and I think that’s absolutely critical for the future of the Movement. After all, the establishment has its music – the national anthem, the hymns, military marches and bands are all the music and culture of power – but we have our own music too and Tolpuddle reminds us of that. It gives people a historical perspective to their own struggles.

As a festival it gets better and bigger every year. The only thing I find difficult is it’s on a hill and walking down and up and sideways, I get very unstable on my pins. I go round to all the stands I can and talk to all sorts of people, who have all got their own stories to tell, and the banners – if ever there was an example of art and culture being on our side, you’ve only got to look at those banners to feel part of the Movement.

Tolpuddle gives us the confidence to keep going – that’s what’s so exciting about it. It reminds us that every issue we’ve ever fought, we have to fight over again and again. What they fought then we have to fight now.

Going to the festival is my annual injection. Without it I don’t think I could carry on. We need more Tolpuddles."

Tony Benn

The Geopolitics of Capitalism

International Socialism journal seminar series

The Geopolitics of Capitalism
with Gonzalo Pozo Martin (International Socialism and Historical Materialism journals)

Tuesday 8 June, 6.30pm
School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS),
Russell Square Campus, Thornhaugh Street, London WC1H 0XG,
Room B102 (Brunei Gallery building, first floor) MAP
Free entry / All welcome
For more details contact isj@swp.org.uk or call 0207 819 1177
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Other forthcoming events:

Research on Money and Finance (RMF) at SOAS and the Birkbeck Institute
for the Humanities are organising a roundtable on

'Eurozone in Crisis: Reform or Exit?'

The event will explore themes from the widely read RMF report
'Eurozone in Crisis: Beggar Thyself and Thy Neighbour'. It will also
contribute to the debate on the social, political and economic aspects
of the Eurozone crisis that was launched by the Birkbeck Institute for
the Humanities. Since the start of 2010 the Eurozone crisis has become
progressively deeper, threatening the existence of the euro as well as
the coherence of the European Union. The crisis poses questions of
economic malfunctioning and austerity policies imposed on several
European countries, but also of democracy and state relations within
the European Union. The roundtable will consider these issues from a
variety of radical perspectives.

Participants include

Costas Lapavitsas, SOAS, 'Reform or Exit from the Eurozone?''
George Irvin, SOAS, 'Costs and Benefits of Default'
Costas Douzinas, Birkbeck, 'The Democratic Deficit within the Eurozone'
Stathis Kouvelakis, King's College, 'The Eurozone Crisis as a Crisis
of the State''
Alex Callinicos, King's College, 'Political Implications of the
Eurozone Crisis'

CHAIR: Larry Elliott, Guardian Newspaper.

Date and Time: June 2nd, 6-8
Venue: Rm B33, Birkbeck College, Mallet St. WC1

Socialist Historians Up North Summer Day School

From Socialist History News:

Summer Day School 2010 - 11 July in Huddersfield

The next 'Socialist Historians Up North Day School' has been organised for Sunday July 11th, 2010. All interested socialist historians (or if you are just keen on the topics we are discussing), are welcome to come along.

It is to be held at the Irish Club, Huddersfield, 86 Fitzwilliam Street, Huddersfield, HD1 5BB
(Near to bus and train stations)

Topics for July

09.45: Tea and Coffee available

10.00 to 12.15: The impact of Comintern policies on the development of the Chinese Revolution 1925-1930 (Paul Gerrard presenting)

12.15 to 1.15pm: Lunch (bring your own, but tea and coffee will be provided)

1.15 to 3.30pm: ‘The Changing State’ – aspects of feudalism and capitalism: A survey of 19th century German History (Ed Doveton presenting)

3.30pm-4.00pm: Planning and Organising the Socialist Historians; future meetings, where do we go from here

Coming Along?

If you think you might be coming along, please let us know by e-mail, so we can make arrangements for tea, coffee and room size. Note that lunch is not provided, so bring your own.

There is no fee to attend the day-school, but we will be making a collection (guide donation £3 to £5), to cover costs of refreshments, room hire, the website, and printing agenda and papers.
Contact: ed@myhistory.net

Black West Indians in Britain seminar

Institute of Commonwealth Studies, in conjunction with the Black & Asian Studies Association

Black and Asian Britain seminars

'Black West Indians in Britain and the Politics of Empire, c.1931-1948'
Speaker: Daniel Whittall
Date: Wednesday 2 June
Time: 18:00 – 19.30
Room G35. University of London, Ground Floor Senate House, Russell Square
(nearest tube station is Russell Square)

Seymour Drescher on Slave Labour versus Free Labour

Annual Alderman Sidney Smith Lecture in Labour History

In association with the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

'Slave Labour versus free labour, from antiquity to the twentieth century'
Seymour Drescher
Distinguished University Professor of History and Professor of Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh

Thursday 10th June 2010
6.00pm
Allam Lecture Theatre,
Esk Building (West Campus)
University of Hull

All Welcome, refreshments to be served immediately after the lecture
For further details please contact: sarah.carter@hull.ac.uk, 01482 305176

Reminder: SHS AGM and Syndicalism seminar

'The Socialist History Society AGM will be held at 1pm on Saturday 15th may at the Bishopsgate Institute near LIverpool Street station, main exit, turn left and cross the road.

The AGM will be followed by a talk from Willie Thompson on "Cold War Liberalism" (which might prove more topical than anticipated!)'

Please also note the seminar on Syndicalism: Lessons for Today?

A Public Meeting organised jointly by the London Socialist Historians and the Socialist History Society
Monday 17th May at 6.00pm
in the Pollard Room, the Institute of Historical Research, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1

Saturday 15 May (tomorrow) is also Levellers Day for those near Burford in Oxfordshire...

Conference: Biography and Identity in the Making of British Radicals

Saturday, 22 May 2010, Swansea Museum

A one-day conference in commemoration of the life and work of Nina Fishman, late Honorary Research Professor at Swansea University, also marking the Swansea launch of Nina’s Arthur Horner: A Political Biography (Lawrence and Wishart, 2010).

Sponsored by: The Richard Burton Centre for the Study of Wales, Swansea University and the Socialist History Society

1000: Coffee and Welcome by Dr Hywel Francis MP
1030: Andrew Thorpe (Exeter University): ‘Nina Fishman’s Arthur Horner and labour biography’
1130: David Howell (York University): ‘ “The district one calls home”: D. H. Lawrence’s writing on coalfield society’
1230: Lunch
1330: Peter Ackers (Loughborough University): ‘More Marx than Methodism: Hugh Clegg and Kingswood School’
1430: Angela John (Aberystwyth University): ‘Equal partners? Gender and the writing of biography’
1530: Chris Williams (Swansea University): ‘Robert Owen and Wales. Wales and Robert Owen’
1630: Tea and Close

Swansea Museum is located close to the city centre at Victoria Road, The Maritime Quarter, Swansea, SA1 1SN.

Coffees and teas will be available at the venue. For lunch people will need to bring their own or take advantage of nearby cafes, pubs etc.

Copies of Arthur Horner: A Political Biography will be on sale at the event throughout the day.

If further information is required please contact Prof. Chris Williams (Swansea University) on christopher.m.williams@swansea.ac.uk, or 07814 234403