Parsons And Travern

Casa Aztlan, 1831 S. Racine, Pilsen, Chicago

Accessible by Pink Line 18th Street stop and bus route 16/18th St.

Members of Bristol Radical History Group will discuss two of their heroes, both with mysterious histories and linked in time and space with Chicago. Lucy Parsons and B Traven may have never met (or did they?), but their influences born in the heat of class war in Chicago and Munich have outlived them and inspire us today.

I love Lucy: More dangeous than a thousand rioters

An introduction to Lucy Parsons. Lucy was a radical anarchist, unionist and militant member of the working class. This talk will give you an overview of her life, correct some historical inaccuracies and explain why to many she is seen as one of the most important revolutionaries of her time.

I don’t have to show you any stinking badges: The writings of B Traven

The mysterious author B Traven is most remembered for his novel ‘The Treasure of the Sierra Madre’, later adpated for the oscar-winning film by John Huston. However, his numerous other realist works, documenting the lives of the poorest workers in the early 20th Century, whether mariners or Mexican peons, relentlessly demonstrate the need for violent social change. Armed with his virulent anti-clericalism, Traven brings us closer to the anatomy of revolutionary movements in two continents.