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.

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.

80 Stokes Croft, Hamilton House, 5th floor Meeting room*

In mid-2010 a strike wave rolled through China’s factories, the most widespread and militant expression of China’s internal migrant workers so far. Their struggle shook the Chinese regime and provoked a world-wide debate about the end of the low-wage-model that stands behind China’s rise to the “factory of the world” and provides Europe and other regions with cheap consumer products.

We will look at the social conditions that stand behind the militant outbreak — the situation and struggles of different groups of migrant workers, such as construction, factory, domestic and sex workers, before examining the strike wave and its implications and discussing the formation of a new working class movement in China.

The discussion will also focus on new forms of reference, exchange and support that take into account the current phase of crisis and the increasing number of social struggles in different parts of the world.

The presentation with a short video from actual struggles will be led by someone who has lived in China and worked on publications on China’s migrant workers, including ‘Dagongmei — Women workers From China’s World Market-Factories Tell Their Story’ and ‘The Take-off of the Second Generation — Migrant Work, Gender and Class Composition in China’ (see www.gongchao.org).

“Viva Mexico!”

Award-winning documentary plus Q&A with film-maker Nicolas Defosse. Part of UK Zapatista Network tour. www.vivamexicofilm.com Wednesday 4th May 7.30pm Hamilton House, Stokes Croft (http://coexist.hamiltonhouse.org/).  Suggested donation £3/£2 but no-one turned away due to lack of funds, www.kiptik.org www.bristolanarchistbookfair.org/

In 1994, a guerrilla group called Zapatista Army for National Liberation occupied several towns in the state of Chiapas. They expressed their exasperation with a political class that did not listen to citizens, whose representatives filled their own pockets at the expense of the people and who, through their commitment to international free trade, sold off public assets and undermined the social fabric of the country. Since then, Zapatista communities in the mountains of Chiapas have declared autonomy and have implemented their own system of governance, administration, health service, and education system.

Since their first appearance, the Zapatistas have reached out to other groups, both nationally in Mexico and internationally. In 2006, they started *the other campaign* as an alternative to the electioneering of the political parties. Representatives of the Zapatistas travelled through Mexico, met up with grassroots organizations, and listened to peoples grievances and their suggestions for change. *¡Viva México!* follows the Zapatista representatives from historic Chiapas to the tourist resorts of Cancún, from picturesque Oaxaca to the beaches of Nayarit, from the centre of Mexico City to the streets of Los Angeles. The documentary captures fishermen, squatters, illegal immigrants, transsexual and transgendered people, hotel employees, members of indigenous communities, urban artisans, and peasants who struggle against the encroachment of the tourism industry on their land, as they tell their stories and enter into dialogue with the Zapatista representatives.

*¡Viva México!* gives a unique image of a proud, resistant and committed Mexico. It affords a rare insight into the political and social reality lived by those whose voices rarely find their ways into the media. It is also, and beyond the dimension of Mexico, a powerful documentation of an alternative way of doing politics. Nicolas Défossé is a French filmmaker who lives in Chiapas. Among his films are La Hierbabuena and Breaking the Siege (co-directed with Mario Viveros). ¡Viva

México! has received numerous awards, among them the Salvador Allende Award for best documentary from the Latin American Film Festival of Brussels, Belgium; the Audience Award for best independent documentary at the Latin American Film Festival in Bordeaux, France; the Audience Award for Best Documentary from the International Human Rights Film Festival in Sucre, Bolivia; and the Audience Award for best documentary at the Film Festival of Tepoztlan, Mexico.

Monday 2 May 2011 at 7.30pm for 8.00pm start

Cube Microplex, Dove St South, Bristol BS2 8JD
£4/3/no one turned away through lack of funds

On the 125th anniversary of the Haymarket Affair, and hot on the heels of the Bristol May Day Parade, Bristol Indymedia and the Anarchist Bookfair Collective presentan evening of films and discussion looking at the origins of International Workers Day and the relevance of labour movement struggles and trade unions today.

The struggle for a 40 hour week and the murder by cops of striking workers in Chicago in May 1886 led directly to the events of 4 May in Haymarket, of more deaths and the conviction of 8 mainly anarchist workers who became known as the Haymarket Martyrs. May Day became International Workers Day in 1889 in commemoration of the murder of 4 of them by the state, and of the struggles of workers internationally.

Tonights first film is a US Labor Beat 1986 documentary ‘The Road to Haymarket’ (28mins). It traces the varied struggles of American and migrant workers in the years before 1886, includes archive images, and re-enacts key moments and speeches from the Haymarket events.

The second film is a cut-up of ‘Trainwreck of the Ideologies 1 & 2′ (20mins approx), also by Labor Beat. This looks at the conflicts which arose at the unveiling of 2 memorials in 1998 and 2004 to the Haymarket Affair. Whilst no anarchists were allowed to speak at these events, speakers included a catholic priest, government reps, and a police spokesman, as once again our radical past was airbrushed away.

An open discussion will follow on the importance of our histories of struggle, and the relevance of May Day and trade unions to struggles today. All welcome.

Some background reading on May Day, with further links at this article: A mayday for May Day?

The Road to Haymarket, May Day, and its Relevance Today

Monday 2 May 2011 at 7.30pm for 8.00pm start
Cube Microplex, Dove St South, Bristol BS2 8JD
£4/3/no one turned away through lack of funds

On the 125th anniversary of the Haymarket Affair, and hot on the heels of
the Bristol May Day Parade, Bristol Indymedia and the Anarchist Bookfair
Collective presentan evening of films and discussion looking at the
origins of International Workers Day and the relevance of labour movement
struggles and trade unions today.

The struggle for a 40 hour week and the murder by cops of striking workers
in Chicago in May 1886 led directly to the events of 4 May in Haymarket,
of more deaths and the conviction of 8 mainly anarchist workers who became
known as the Haymarket Martyrs. May Day became International Workers Day
in 1889 in commemoration of the murder of 4 of them by the state, and of
the struggles of workers internationally.

Tonights first film is a US Labor Beat 1986 documentary 'The Road to
Haymarket' (28mins). It traces the varied struggles of American and
migrant workers in the years before 1886, includes archive images, and
re-enacts key moments and speeches from the Haymarket events.

The second film is a cut-up of 'Trainwreck of the Ideologies 1 & 2'
(20mins approx), also by Labor Beat. This looks at the conflicts which
arose at the unveiling of 2 memorials in 1998 and 2004 to the Haymarket
Affair. Whilst no anarchists were allowed to speak at these events,
speakers included a catholic priest, government reps, and a police
spokesman, as once again our radical past was airbrushed away.

An open discussion will follow on the importance of our histories of
struggle, and the relevance of May Day and trade unions to struggles
today. All welcome.
Some background reading on May Day, with further links at this article: A
The Road to Haymarket, May Day, and its Relevance Today

 

Monday 2 May 2011 at 7.30pm for 8.00pm start

Cube Microplex, Dove St South, Bristol BS2 8JD

£4/3/no one turned away through lack of funds

 

On the 125th anniversary of the Haymarket Affair, and hot on the heels of

the Bristol May Day Parade, Bristol Indymedia and the Anarchist Bookfair

Collective presentan evening of films and discussion looking at the

origins of International Workers Day and the relevance of labour movement

struggles and trade unions today.

 

The struggle for a 40 hour week and the murder by cops of striking workers

in Chicago in May 1886 led directly to the events of 4 May in Haymarket,

of more deaths and the conviction of 8 mainly anarchist workers who became

known as the Haymarket Martyrs. May Day became International Workers Day

in 1889 in commemoration of the murder of 4 of them by the state, and of

the struggles of workers internationally.

 

Tonights first film is a US Labor Beat 1986 documentary 'The Road to

Haymarket' (28mins). It traces the varied struggles of American and

migrant workers in the years before 1886, includes archive images, and

re-enacts key moments and speeches from the Haymarket events.

 

The second film is a cut-up of 'Trainwreck of the Ideologies 1 & 2'

(20mins approx), also by Labor Beat. This looks at the conflicts which

arose at the unveiling of 2 memorials in 1998 and 2004 to the Haymarket

Affair. Whilst no anarchists were allowed to speak at these events,

speakers included a catholic priest, government reps, and a police

spokesman, as once again our radical past was airbrushed away.

 

An open discussion will follow on the importance of our histories of

struggle, and the relevance of May Day and trade unions to struggles

today. All welcome.

Some background reading on May Day, with further links at this article: A

mayday for May Day? (see http://www.bristolanarchistbookfair.org/?p=1214)

 

mayday for May Day? (see http://www.bristolanarchistbookfair.org/?p=1214)
The Road to Haymarket, May Day, and its Relevance Today

 

Monday 2 May 2011 at 7.30pm for 8.00pm start

Cube Microplex, Dove St South, Bristol BS2 8JD

£4/3/no one turned away through lack of funds

 

On the 125th anniversary of the Haymarket Affair, and hot on the heels of

the Bristol May Day Parade, Bristol Indymedia and the Anarchist Bookfair

Collective presentan evening of films and discussion looking at the

origins of International Workers Day and the relevance of labour movement

struggles and trade unions today.

 

The struggle for a 40 hour week and the murder by cops of striking workers

in Chicago in May 1886 led directly to the events of 4 May in Haymarket,

of more deaths and the conviction of 8 mainly anarchist workers who became

known as the Haymarket Martyrs. May Day became International Workers Day

in 1889 in commemoration of the murder of 4 of them by the state, and of

the struggles of workers internationally.

 

Tonights first film is a US Labor Beat 1986 documentary 'The Road to

Haymarket' (28mins). It traces the varied struggles of American and

migrant workers in the years before 1886, includes archive images, and

re-enacts key moments and speeches from the Haymarket events.

 

The second film is a cut-up of 'Trainwreck of the Ideologies 1 & 2'

(20mins approx), also by Labor Beat. This looks at the conflicts which

arose at the unveiling of 2 memorials in 1998 and 2004 to the Haymarket

Affair. Whilst no anarchists were allowed to speak at these events,

speakers included a catholic priest, government reps, and a police

spokesman, as once again our radical past was airbrushed away.

 

An open discussion will follow on the importance of our histories of

struggle, and the relevance of May Day and trade unions to struggles

today. All welcome.

Some background reading on May Day, with further links at this article: A

mayday for May Day? (see http://www.bristolanarchistbookfair.org/?p=1214)

 

Local artist Mike Baker has been responsible for making many commemorative plaques around Bristol including the BRHG plaque on The Seven Stars Pub.

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.

Wednesday evenings; 5.30-7.00pm all seminars held in Room M9 (Main Building) unless otherwise stated

Weds 26 Jan 2011 Stephen Hunt Anarchist and Libertarian groups in 19th/20th Century Bristol

Weds 09 Feb 2011 Kath Thompson Bristol Library Society

Weds 09 Mar 2011 Peter Leppard The Silver Tickets of the Proprietors of the Bristol Theatre 1764 to 1925