Cry  Freedom, Cry Seven Stars – An evening to launch the new Bristol Radical Pamphleteer title Cry Freedom, Cry Seven Stars by Mark Steeds. Including a performance by the Red Notes Choir. This is on Tuesday 7th September.

The Atmosphere of Heaven – A Nitrous Oxide fuelled history walk with Mike Jay through Clifton exploring the themes of his new book; Dr Beddoes, the Romantic Poets and laughing Gas. This is on Sunday 12th September.

Bristol Anarchist Bookfair is on Saturday 11th September 2010 at Hamilton House on 80 Stokes Croft, Bristol, BS1 3QY.

Click here for the full Radical History Zone line-up.

Bristol Radical History Group will be hosting the ‘Radical History Zone’ at the Bristol Anarchist Bookfair on Saturday 11th September 2010 at Hamilton House, Stokes Croft. Over the last two years the Bristol Anarchist Bookfair has grown to be one of the largest radical gatherings in the city. This year it is expected that around 1000 people will attend the event.

As part of the recent interest in radical, social and working class history, Bristol Radical History Group and Bristol Anarchist Bookfair Collective have created the ‘Radical History Zone’, a dedicated space for independent history publishers, radical and local history groups from the South West and beyond. Meetings and workshops in the RHZ will cover DIY publishing, websites and research along with ‘Meet the Author’ sessions a chance to hear about some of the new radical history works on offer.

The very reasonable rates for bookstalls are on the attached booking form, and the suggestions are as follows:

1. Double table

2. Single table

3. Half a table (share with another publisher/group)

4. Generic table (share it with a few others)

If you would like to be part of the Radical History Zone the deadline for applications for stalls etc. is the 9th August 2010 (at the latest). Please e-mail the completed form to:

brh@brh.org.uk

or mail it to BRHG, c/o Booty, 82 Colston St., Bristol BS1 5BB.

If you would like to offer to be on a panel or present a ‘meet the author’ session (or have any other ideas) then let us know.

Download the booking form here.

Hope to see you in Bristol on the 11th….

• Short history of brewing in Britain
• Pre-enclosure home brew demo
• Beer shops, Captain Swing and the Hanging at Kenn
• Cider Riots
• Sugar, Tobacco, Capitalism and Conservative Clubs
• ‘From the Pledge to Straight Edge’
• Smuggling and alehouses, taverns and inns
• Rise of breweries, negative impact on Forest of Dean
• Gin Lane/Beer St. and Hogarth’s satire
• Peoples pubs

A talk focusing on grassroots organizations in NYC, L.A., Detroit, and New Orleans and the building of sustainable communities.

We are very lucky to have one of the foremost historians of radical Black movements and cultures in the United States, Robin Kelley speaking in Bristol next week.

Upstairs at the Stag and Hounds Pub, 74 Old Market Street, Bristol, BS2 0EJ.

With David Goldblatt

The World Cup Finals, now 80 years old, attracts the biggest television audience of any global event. In an era of globalization, it is, if only for a month every four years, the closest we come to imagining and being a global community. It’s the kind of audience no state, no political movement can turn down and since the Uruguayans celebrated the centenary of national independence by hosting the 1930 tournament, politics has been in play at every game. David Goldblatt (author of The Ball Is Round) will explore the political history and cultural meanings of the World Cup and look forward to what we might expect when the 2010 tournament kicks off in South Africa in June.

Accompanied by a film of the 1938 World Cup.

More details.

It looks like we may just break even and so will live to fight another campaign.

For those of you who were following the closely fought pamphlet constituency, Captain Swing  narrowly won the seat with White Slavery coming in second.

If you want details of our events as they happen email brh@brh.org.uk and join the email list or is you can face it join the facebook group.

See you all again soon.

Leon Rosselson & Robb Johnson’s The Liberty Tree – The Life, Times And Writings Of Tom Paine

are now available from Bristol Ticket Shop.

Bristol Ticket Shop
26 Union Street Broadmead,
BS1 2DP
Tel: 0117 929 9008

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, 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 Chalkley, 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.

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’.