Bristol Radical History Group will again be running the Radical History Zone at the Bristol Anarchist Bookfair on Saturday 7th May 2011, 10:30am-6:30pm. The venue will once again be Hamilton House on Stokes Croft. The Bookfair Collective say:

It will happen at the end of a week that includes an outrageously expensive royal wedding, local elections and a referendum on the latest parliamentary elections voting scam. It will happen shortly after the budget cuts of the national LibDemCon government, and local councils, will be known; whilst the job losses and cuts inherent in the austerity drive to bail out capitalism will be kicking in. The anarchist bookfair will be the perfect antidote to all this misery and displays of wealth inequality.

As in the Autumn we will have about 7 speakers and 10 history related stalls in the RHZ.

Find out more at the Bristol Anarchist Bookfair website.

Mike Jay, author of  The Atmosphere of Heaven has had a plaque made to mark the grave of Thomas Beddoes in the Strangers’ Burial Ground in Hotwells, Bristol. While writing the book, which tells the story of Dr Beddoes and his work at the Pneumatic Institution in Bristol, Mike managed to identify the grave and clear it of undergrowth.   However, the engraving on the grave is now barley visible due to weathering and during the history walk in September it was suggested that a plaque should be made so that the grave would not be lost again.

Mike has obtained permission to fix the plaque to the wall behind the grave and suggests that we have a small fixing ceremony during the spring.

Meanwhile, Mike’s latest book High Society – Mind-Altering Drugs in History and Culture has just come out in hardback.

The programme of events for Bristol Radical History Group’s The 1970s – Life Before Thatcher has been released.

From Dagenham to Grunwick, Glam to Punk and Wilson to Thatcher.

Talks, films and music, 13 free events between Sunday 14th November and Tuesday 7th December 2010.

• “Make Them Grovel”: The 1976 West Indies Cricket Tour
• From The Ford Workers’ Group to Made In Dagenham
  
• The Asian Youth Movement
• Grunwick: The End Of An Era?
• Spies, Lies And The Coup: State Repression In The 70s
• Cry Freedom Concert
• How We Won: Strikes In The 70s
• Glam-Punk Disco Inferno
• The Anti-Vietnam War Movement
• Punk And The Pistols
• From Recruitment To Dialogue: How Does The Radical Left Relate To Workers?
• Italy In The 1970s: Bodies In The Street, A Tale Of A Country Like Ours
• “Can’t Do Nothin’ If You Ain’t Bad”‘: The League Of Revolutionary Black Workers

I have made most of the videos from the BRHG Election Special smaller so that if you had trouble watching them before you should have better luck now.

Videos from the Bristol Anarchist Bookfair will follow after some time.

This Autumn sees three new pamphlets added to the Bristol Radical Pamphleteer series as well as two 2nd editions.

They are:

#1 Cry Freedom, Cry Seven Stars: Thomas Clarkson In Bristol, 1787 – 2nd Edition by Mark Steeds. This is a major re-working of the pamphlet that was published to help raise money for the Seven Stars Plaque. Now re-published it celebrates the unveiling of the plaque and launches a new challenge – to make the Seven Stars the first ever pub with UNESCO World Heritage status.

#6 The Life And Times Of Warren James – Free Miner Of The Forest Of Dean – 2nd edition by Ian Wright. Ian has revised and slightly expanded his pamphlet, it now also boasts a new cover by the famous anarchist artist Clifford Harper.

#14 Anarchism in Bristol and the West Country to 1950 by Steve Hunt. A new pamphlet by the the author of Pamphleteer #8 Yesterday’s To-morrow – Bristol’s Garden Suburbs.

# 15  Votes For Ladies – The Suffrage Movement 1867 – 1918 by Sheila McNeil. Another new pamphlet, this time asking how ‘radical’ were the Suffragettes and how far did they believe in ‘universal suffrage’.

#16 Anglo-Saxon Democracy by Tony Dyer. Tony gave us a talk on the same subject as part of the BRHG Election Special events earlier this year and has now written it up as the third of our new pamphlets.