From 10am to 5pm

For more details visit the Book Fair website.

To find more click here.

This is a ‘celebration of the working classes, featuring a truly international line up of acclaimed urban artists.’ Created by the same people behind 12 Days of Xmas this event is not only happening during the same week as BRHG’s Down With The Fences but it is just around the corner as well. To see the full lineup of artists visit their website -

http://www.stealfromwork.org/work/index.htm#curent

Opening night - Thursday 1st May 7pm-10pm
Then open everyday 12pm-7pm (closed on Tue 6th)
The Old Motorcycle Workshop
15-19 Stokes Croft (opposite Pieminster), Bristol, UK

Ten days dedicated to places, spaces and environments that are owned by no one but are shared by all. As the world faces a wave of new enclosures, we examine the history of the commons, their enclosure and the resistance to private ownership, then and now.

Speakers Include: Peter Linebaugh, George Caffentzis, Massimo De Angiles, Steve Poole and David Goldblatt.

Click here to see the full programme of events.

To celebrate the Seven Stars’ connections with Thomas Clarkson they have started selling Sharp’s Abolition Ale. So why not drop in and try a pint?

Bristol Radical History Group are helping to raise money for a new cast aluminum plaque for the front of The seven Stars. The pub has a unique place in world history because it was there that Clarkson began his research that would eventually lead to the abolition of the British slave trade, and late slavery itself. Look out for plaque fundraisers at The Seven Stars and the BRHG pamphlet by Mark Steeds that is coming out at the beginning of May.

11.00am Albany Green, St. Pauls and 2.00pm Broadmead (Centre)

Bristol is undergoing massive attacks on our free spaces and culture by property developers and their friends in the City Council. Across the city green spaces, pubs, clubs and amenities are being closed and sold off with little consultation with the communities affected.

So if you oppose the…

* Threat of closure of the clubs and pubs on Stokes Croft (Clockwork, Lakota, Blue Mountain, Junction)
* The threatened sell off of Castle Park to the developers
* The loss of playing fields and green spaces city-wide
* The ‘private streets’ of Cabot Circus
* The dispersion orders on College Green
* The removal of the Bristol-Bath cycle path
* The loss of pubs and meeting spaces in our communities

On Saturday 12th April there will be street protests against the gentrification of Central Bristol. There will be two meeting points:

11.00am Albany Green, St. Pauls: Join the ‘Bristol Space Invasion’ Carnival Parade as part of a europe wide weekend of action against the privatisation of public space

Joining with…

2.00am Broadmead (Centre): ‘Save Stokes Croft from Gentrification’ party parade going to College Green

After the parades come along to Bristol Space Invasion Autonomous Zone featuring Art, performance, cinema, open-mic and live music - ALL FOR FREE! - Call 07528 953 230 or 07591 631 230 on the day for details of precise location.

Please show your opposition to the destruction of our places, spaces and culture, before its too late.

See you there….

Save Stokes Croft and Bristol Space Invasion

So I left Bristol a few weeks ago to start a new life in France. I’m currently staying with friends who live in a large farmhouse close to the beautiful village of Montrésor, near the market town of Loches in Central France.

Eventually I, and my partner, Sandra, will be buying a property in the department (37) - hopefully it will have enough land on which visitors will be able to camp when visiting ~ ideally we want to set up a few yurts and hold a number of small annual events. These would include History weekends, Middle Eastern Dance, Storytelling, Yoga, etc. But it’s still early days for these ideas.

We’re still working in the UK so should be able to make the occasional BRHG gig!

On the French history side of things I’ll shortly be starting to research the history of the French Resistance in the immediate area and make my findings available in English (on the web and in booklets). There are a number of locally available publications in French which touch on the subject - though what their political slant is I’m not sure. Where I am living the events of the 2nd World War, the role of the resistance and the role of those who supported the Vichy Government are still contentious.

As well as being an historian I’m also a storyteller and while I’ve been here I created a couple of stories based in the local region - I’m going to tell them this summer at the Trowbridge and the Whytchwood (Cheltenham) Festivals. Perhaps I’ll see one or two of my BRHG friend there and we can have a jar or two.

Should anyone have information they’d like to share on any of the above do get in touch.

The clubs, pubs, cafés, squatted centres and artists’ studios of Stokes Croft have been the core of Bristol’s underground music and art scene for decades. This is the area that brought us Banksy, Roni Size, The Wild Bunch, Massive Attack, the famous Bristol club, free party and punk scene and all the other things that have made Bristol an exciting place to live since the 1960s.

Now all this is under threat as Bristol City Council and property developers such as ‘Urban Creation’ are joining together to culturally cleanse the area in the pursuit of profit. They say we really need housing. They say they want to improve the area with offices and shops. Bollocks. They’re not doing it for our benefit, they’re not even doing it for the stupid bastards who are going to buy their over priced yuppie boxes. They are doing it because the property prices are high and they can make a load of money out of it. (more…)

The sculpture, by Stephen Froom of Wicked Willow, was unveiled by the Mayor of Bristol, some Waterstones’ pirates, Dumpling The Parrot (from JungleTalk) and yours truly. Helping us were pupils from Hanah More School.

Below are some pictures of the event. Click then to see larger versions.

To learn more about the what the Long John Silver Trust does visit our website.

The evening that I shared a platform with Richard Hart and spoke at one of your meetings last year was a high point of several weeks I spent in Britain. To see so many people interested in–and knowledgeable about–radical history was a thrill. I know of no equivalent to the BRHG in any city in the United States–not even in San Francisco, where I live, which has long had the reputation of being one of the strongest labor union towns in the country.

Good luck in your many activities and congratulations on your splendid website. I hope to visit you again sometime.

Fraternally,

Adam Hochschild

Read Adam Hochschild’s article English Abolition: The Movie in the BRHG Archive.