Steve Higginson

Saturday 11 February 2012 – 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm – Hydra Books

Steve Higginson will interpret the re-birth of misogyny by looking at the period of the Great Plague, 1345 onwards, and the great moralising discourse that swept across Europe post plaque. Located within this discourse of purity, women were viewed as both cause and effect of the plague, and were to be “enclosed” accordingly within the domestic sphere. The purity campaign against women was attributable to a re-reading of the Old Testament plus a resurgance of interest in Aristotlian ethics.

Steve hails from Liverpool and was a Union organiser in the Communication Workers Union. Now a post-graduate, Steve lectures at John Moores University. His recent projects include an examination of time, memory and movement in port cities (principally Liverpool) as co-author of Edgy Cities (2006). He has been a regular contributor of Bristol Radical History Group events.

The Little Book of Prison, A Beginners Guide” -

Frankie Owens

Tuesday 21st February 2012 – 7:00 pm – Hydra Books

A Beginners Guide is the award winning book by ex prisoner Frankie Owens. Written during his time behind bars, the book aims to be the little helping hand that first time offenders might need as they enter the system.

Frankie Owens wrote The Little Book of Prison, A Beginners Guide to help future inmates, their families and loved ones to help make sense of what they would all go through when someone goes to prison. He writes from his own experience as a prisoner living at Her Majesties Pleasure.

The book won the 2011 Koestler Platinum award for non-fiction http://koestlertrust.org.uk/ judged by Will Self. “Our awards judges don’t give a Platinum Award lightly, and this book is a winner on more than one level. It is a practical and totally frank introduction to real life in the British prison system – probably the best introduction there is. But it is also a wonderfully human narrative and a sharply argued critique – the wit and wisdom of one inmate who turns out to be a born writer. I was gripped from start to finish – roared with laughter one minute, winced with pain the next, and was left wondering why we have prisons at all.”

 Old Market March and Police Riot – 80th Anniversary

Dave Backwith and Roger Ball

Saturday 25 February 2012 – 4:00 pm – Hydra Books

February 23rd 1932 was the scene of a confrontation between the National Unemployed Workers’ Movement and the police when thousands of unemployed Bristolians were baton charged by the police during a march organised by the National Unemployed Workers Movement at the height of the depression.

To mark the 80th anniversary, historians Roger Ball and Dave Backwith will consider the impact of the events of that day and the wider context of the struggles of the unemployed during the great depression. Dave Backwith is a researcher of Bristol’s working class history in the inter war years particularly 1919 and the unemployed workers movement in the 1930′s. He is a family and community studies lecturer at the Anglia Ruskin University. Roger Ball is a post graduate research student in the history department at the University of the West of England.

History Walk – Old Market March and Riot – 80th Anniversary

Roger Ball and others

Sunday 26 February – 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm – meet at Hydra Books

Meet at 2pm at Hydra Books for a History Walk through the streets of Old Market and Central Bristol, where Bristol Radical History Group members will recount the stories associated with the various scenes on route.

Roots of Resistance: 20 years of Earth First!

A puppet show by Otherstory.

Thursday 08 March 2012 – 7:00 pm – Hydra Books

Using a magical “live animation ” technique, Roots of Resistance celebrates the rise of radical ecological activism in the last 20 years: from the treetops of Newbury to the tops of power station chimneys. It draws together personal stories, and brings to life both legendary and more recent victories, in an inspiring call to action.

Escape was on Everyone’s Mind – the Tale of Jack Sheppard

A puppet show by Otherstory.

Sunday 25 March 2012 – Hydra Books

See how an ordinary apprentice carpenter from East London became the legendary jail breaker and hero of the people, whose fame spread across oceans. Witness his daring and miraculous escapes. Watch him outwit judges, jailers and the Thiefcatcher General – until the hangman’s noose beckons and it’s now or never, neck or nothing…

Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans History Month takes place every year in February. It celebrates the lives and achievements of the LGBT community. A programme of events has been compiled by OutStories Bristol, Bristol Lesbian & Gay Switchboard, CycleOut Bristol, M-Shed, Gay West and Hydra Books.

The events at Hydra Books are :

Changing images of trans people in speculative literature – Cheryl Morgan

Thursday 2 February – 7:00 pm

The availability of magic and advanced science have allowed writers of fantasy and science fiction literature to explore issues of gender in their work. Hugo Award winning critic, Cheryl Morgan, explores how the way in which trans characters have been portrayed in speculative literature has changed as real trans people have become better known to the general public. Cheryl Morgan is, to her knowledge, the only out trans person ever to have won science fiction’s highest honour, the Hugo Award. Born in Somerset, she has lived in Australia and California and now resides near Bath where she runs a small ebook publishing company and bookstore. She blogs regularly at www.cheryl-morgan.com

Celebration of Lesbian and Gay Literature – OutStories Bristol

Tuesday 7 February – 7:00 pm

From love poems to sci-fi and satire – come and join us in an evening of readings from literature with LGBT themes. Bring your favourite poem or excerpt and share it with the audience. Tell us what it means to you and where we can find more like it. Help us raise the profile of this new bookshop in the heart of Bristol’s Gay Village.

Cross-dressers and the establishment in Victorian England – Juliet Jacques

Thursday 9 February 7:00 pm

The emergence of public cross-dressing in the 19th century industrial city caused great anxiety to the Victorian legal establishment and England’s new police forces alike. In this talk, Guardian and New Statesman writer Juliet Jacques (longlisted for the Orwell Prize in 2011) explores how those who cross-dressed were criminalised, most famously in the scandalous trial of Ernest “Stella” Boulton and Frederick “Fanny” Park in 1871, and how contemporary transgender identities began to evolve in response.

Juliet Jacques is a journalist and author, best known for writing A Transgender Journey for The Guardian – the first time that the gender reassignment process has been serialised for a mainstream British publication. She has also written for the New Statesman and TimeOut, and was longlisted for the Orwell Prize in 2011.

Exhibition – Lesbian and Gay Switchboard

Sunday 26 February – 4:00 pm

Bristol’s Lesbian and Gay Switchboard has been running for 37 years. Come and see an exhibition to celebrate its history at the bookshop. This will be followed by a party at 7pm at the Old Market Tavern for volunteers, friends and supporters of the Bristol Lesbian and Gay Switchboard.

Six of the pickets were received custodial sentences. Des Warren, Eric (Ricky) Tomlinson and John McKinsie Jones were sentenced to three years, two years and nine months of imprisonment respectively.

Ever since the trial the convicted pickets had maintained that they were the vistims of a policically motivated trial. As Ricky Tomlinson put it from the dock:

“I have heard the judge say that this was not a political trial, and just an ordinary criminal case, and I refute that with every fibre of my being. “

This year the Official Shrewsbury 24 Campaign, on behalf of the five convicted pickets who are still alive and Des Warren’s son, are submitting  the case the Criminal Cases Review Committee in the hope that it will be referred to the Court of Appeal. To find out more go to the new Shrewsbury 24 Campaign website that contains the background to the strike and subsequent trials as well as a recently unearthed film on the Shrewsbury picket’s made in 1974 by Michael Rossen, the former  Children’s Laureate and Radio 4 presenter.

Steve hails from Liverpool and was a Union organiser in the Communication Workers Union. Now a post-graduate, Steve lectures at John Moores University. His recent projects include an examination of time, memory and movement in port cities (principally Liverpool) as co-author of Edgy Cities (2006). He has been a regular contributor of Bristol Radical Hisotry Group events.

Lessons from the Tredegar Medical Aid Society

Speaker: John Desmond

The Tredegar Medical Aid Society was founded in Tredegar in South Wales in 1890. In return for a contribution from its members it supplied free health care. This society contributed the model which established the British National Health Service

The provenance of John’s talk is a series of events which began last year. After recounting these events, he will discuss the lessons which he has learnt from his research into, and his reflections about the Tredegar Medical Aid Society. He will conclude by touching upon his current work about the health sector in Wales, which is informed by these lessons.’

John throws into sharp relief the contrast between the provision of a health service by the Tredegar Medical Aid Society and its current provision by the State.

Below you can find audio of all of these talks.

Ian Bone – 1919 – Year of Revolution’

Maria Spiridonova, Jaroslav Hasek, Gabriel D’Annunzio,Percy Fisher,Simon Radowitzgy, Gustav Landauer, Max Holz.

Steve Higginson – Liverpool 1911, A City On The Edge

“Rhythms That Carry”

<em>“You need not attach great importance to the rioting in Liverpool last night. It took place in an area where disorder is a chronic feature”.

- Winston Churchill</em>

When Churchill made this statement to Parliament, Liverpool was under martial law: a gunboat was moored on the Mersey, dockers, seafarers, and transport workers were on general strike.

Rhythms that Carry, will explore and illuminate new histories concerning the events of 1911. In 1886, a magazine described Liverpool as being the “New York of Europe,…..

A World City”. The open-ended nature of the port gave Liverpool a cosmopolitan edge and had a profound impact on the industrial, artistic, educational, cultural and social life of Liverpool.

However, there are questions that have remained unanswered with regards to the spontaneous nature and causes of the strikes that engulfed Liverpool across that long hot summer.

Rhythms that Carry, will attempt to answer these questions and much more besides.1911 represented the birth of Speed-Up Capitalism. A natural tide and motion was being replaced by time and motion. The prominence of women and people of colour left a lasting imprint and symbolised Liverpool as the epicentre of new interlinking cultural and social movements………What was the influence of Liverpool 1911 on Charlie Chaplin?

Sheila Coleman

The recent debate in the House of Commons which culminated in a decision to release all Hillsborough documents was generally  perceived as a victory for those fighting for justice. The debate arose because of an e-petition to release documents. The e-petition was initiated after the Hillsborough Justice Campaign issued a statement condemning the government for appealing the Information Commissioner’s ruling that it was in the public interest to release (under Freedom of Information), the minutes of a cabinet meeting, held under Margaret Thatcher in the days following the Hillsborough Disaster.

Sheila Coleman of the Hillsborough Justice Campaign does not think that the result of the debate was a victory for either truth or justice. Rather she believes that a potentially dangerous precedent was set when the government agreed to hand over documents to the Hillsborough ‘Independent’ Panel.

Sheila will review the BBC’s FOI request in light of subsequent developments including how it led to Hillsborough being the subject of the first e-petition ever to be debated in the House of Commons. She will also tell of the reasons why families and survivors of the HJC remain unconvinced by recent promises and how the HJC remains marginalised in spite of being at the forefront of the campaign for justice.

Forest Riots And Are You Wearing That T-Shirt – Ian Wright (Sept 2011) - News from The Forest (pdf).

Why have you come to Mourmansk? – G. Tchitcherineand and N. Lenin (October 2011) - A poster handed out to British troops how had been landed at Mourmansk towards the end of WWI.

A Newport surgeon (Roger Morgan, re-enactor) will report on the injuries sustained in Newport on the morning of November 4th, 1839 and demonstrate how the wounded were treated.

And there will be ‘time travelling’ lecturers with ‘magic lantern slides’:

Karin Molson, on behalf of Shire Hall ‘Campaign’ Project, will show DVDs made with young people involved in ’active citizenshi’ that has been inspired by the Chartist Story.

Colin Gibson (archivist) on the survival and importance of Chartist Trial documents that Gwent Archives have been digitising during 2011.

Ruth Waycott and Les James, authors of a new book – Voices for the Vote: Chartism in south Wales - about the struggles of the Chartists to gain free speech and political rights for all.

Soup, rolls, coffee, tea available at good prices.

The Convention has no dealings with Truck or Tommy (Company) shops.

2.00pm at Newport Museum and Art Gallery

- The South Wales Record Society is launching its latest volume, William Downing Evans (1811-97): Poetry and Poverty in Nineteenth-Century Newport. Authors, Ian and Wendy Dear, will be talking about this Newport man who lived through the Chartist era and was local Registrar and Clerk to the Poor Law Guardians for half a century and strove to improve the town’s sanitation.

Details of this and other Newport events can found on their flyer.