The programme of events for the Bristol Radical History Group Election Special has been announced.

In this series of events we will trace how we got the vote and try to find out whether there is a viable alternative to representational party democracy.  Therefore, in a broad  selection of events, we will find out about Thomas Spence, The Chartist, The Reform Acts and the Suffragettes. Searching for democratic alternatives we will look at anarchism in the 19th Century, election by lottery in Athens and participatory democracy from Anglo-Saxon Britain to the Internet.

Bristol Radical History Group are chuffed to welcome Dorothy Thompson, Owen Ashton, Steve Poole, Leon Rosselson, Robb Johnson, The Blue Sequoias, David Goldblatt, Roy Norris, Chris Chalkle, Les James, Keith Armstrong, Tony Dyer and some other familiar faces.

But there is more! If you are suffering from election fatigue already accomplished trouble maker Ian Bone will teach us how to subvert democracy with such shenanigans as the Vote Nobody campaign and The Bristolian. We will also be holding our own mock election in the dark and satirical tradition of The Mayor of Garrett.

Talks, walks, gigs and films. Check it out.

As well as the Morris Beckman event at The Cube on 1st March 2010 Bristol Radical History Group are planning a series of events for April around the theme of the inevitable General Election:

Bristol Radical History Group Election Special

The Struggle for Democracy in Britain

Recent British histories arrogantly claimed that the ‘we’ brought democracy to the Empire and ultimately the world in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Despite centuries of struggle to wrestle power from an elite few, the vote in Britain is still seen as a gift from the rulers to the people to help bring ‘us’ into the modern age. These days, the establishment of western style ‘democracy’ is used by Britain as a context for invasion, war and occupation.

In April this year through the media of public lectures, debates, history walks and other events, Bristol Radical History Group will be critically examining the British history of democracy and enfranchisement. Tracing a path from the English and French Revolutions via the Spencerites, the Chartists and the Suffragettes to New Labour we will be trying to answer the following questions:

• How was the vote for everybody achieved?
• Who wanted democracy and who didn’t?
• What was the composition of the movements that fought for the vote for all?
• What did these movements actually want?
• What were the alternatives?
• What did we end up with?
• Is democracy historically necessary for capitalism to exist?
• Does ‘democracy’, as we know it, have a future?

Join us in uncovering the hidden history of democracy and enfranchisement in Britain. A perfect antidote to the misery of ‘election fever’.

Video from the re-enactment of Theresa Garnett attacking Winston Churchill at Bristol Temple Meads in 1909. Filmed by Alex Milne.

Find out more about this event.

The audio files from Anny Cullum and Dawn Dyer’s talks are also now available.

Saturday 31st October. 12-2:30pm

Garrett Vrs. Churchill

12pm Bristol Temple Meads

On 15 November 1909 in Temple Meads Station Winston Churchill, then Home Secretary, stepped from a railway carriage and was attacked by Theresa Garnett (a member of the Women’s Social and Political Union) who was wielding a riding crop. Or, as Votes For Women put it:

Moved by the spirit of pure chivalry, Miss Garnett took what she thought to be the best available means of avenging the insult done to womanhood by the Government to which Mr. Churchill belongs.

To mark the 100th Anniversary of this event BRHG will be staging a reconstruction at Bristol Temple Meads. Followed by:

Suffragettes

12:30-2:30pm. GWRSA Social Club, Temple Meads, BS1 6QQ. As you walk up to the entrance is on the left just past the Empire & Commonwealth Museum and the Nursery.

Talks by Dawn Dyer (the Suffragettes in Bristol) and Anny Cullum (the composition and outlook of the Suffragettes).

Saturday 31st October 2009

As part of the Trapese Popular Education Collective’s ‘Start Producing the Future’ events BRHG are having a Radical History Walk around Bristol.

The walk starts from The Arnolfini at 3pm and will finish at the same place at about 5pm.

The walk will take in the scenes of some radical activism, both ancient and modern, and compare this with the actions of the ‘mob’. So, come for a little light exercise and learn about Thomas Clarkson, Jame Nayler, St. Wulfsan, Dorothy Hazard and various Bristol Riots.