Events Archive - Page 37 of 56 - Bristol Radical History Group

Global Revolts and Uprisings

To celebrate the recent release of Asia's Unknown Uprisings Volume 2 (PM Press) George Katsiaficas and Geronimo will be speaking at several events in the UK. They will discuss the Asian Wave from 1986-1992 which overthrew 8 dictatorships in 6 years, the 1980's German autonomous scene and discuss what links can be made to current uprisings, rebellions and revolutions. About Asia's Unknown Uprising – Vol. 2 Ten years in the making, this magisterial work provides a unique perspective on uprisings […]

The Black Revolution

On Wednesday the 16th October, Bristol will be hosting Jonina Abron-Ervin and Lorenzo Ervin as they give talks on their involvement in the US Black Power Movement and struggles that continue to this day. Jonina is the author of Driven by the Movement: Activists of the Black Power Era and will speak about her interviews with some 20 Black Power Activists as well as her own activity in the Black Panthers, where she became editor of the Black Panther Newspaper. She will detail the experiences of […]

Remembering the Real WWI: Public meeting

Next year is the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War. The British government plans to spend £55 million marking this occasion (and the centenary of other stages of the war). Comments from David Cameron calling for a 'truly national commemoration' stressing our 'national spirit' suggest what he has in mind. He has even compared the government's plans with last year's Diamond Jubilee celebrations. For the majority of people in Europe, whether directly involved or not, the war was […]

‘We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the drains’: An alternative explanation of the public debt?

Using everyone’s favourite bank manager Captain Mainwaring of Dad’s Army fame, Alan explains where all the bailout money went in the 2008 meltdown and current economic crisis. Neoliberal myths, lies and statistics about the public deficit such as the commodity theory of money, supply and demand, ‘rational’ consumer choices and ‘alternatives within capitalism’ are de-bunked using sources from the Guardian to the President of the EU Central Bank.

Protests in Brazil

What's behind the protests that mobilized hundreds of thousands of Brazilians and shocked the country in the middle of the Confederations Cup? Who are the protesters and what are their flags and demands? What are the direction and the consequences of the mobilization? Two eye-witnesses will give a visual report on what happened in Sao Paolo and try to answer these questions.

Tolpuddle And Captain Swing: Hidden History?

In 1834, six Dorset farm labourers were condemned to transportation to Australia for forming an early trade union. These 'Tolpuddle Martyrs' have become an iconic part of modern British history. But three years before the events in Tolpuddle, rural England was rocked with a massive upr1sing of farm labourers known as the 'Swing Riots'. Dr. Ball analyses why 'Tolpuddle' has lodged in popular memory and the far more significant events of 'Swing' have been distorted and forgotten. W.l. Hall, North […]

A Marxist History of the World in 45 Minutes

We face the greatest crisis in the history of humanity. Economic depression, imperialist war, climate catastrophe, and grotesque social inequalities threaten to tear the world apart. What is to be done? The lesson of history is that human beings make their own history. Launching his new book, A Marxist History of the World: from Neanderthals to Neoliberals, archaeologist and historian Neil Faulkner argues that history is open and contested. It is an active process of creation in which different […]

The Fight against Blacklisting

Di Parkin has been a left activist since the 1960s. She is a historian and published “60 years of struggle” history of Betteshanger, a militant Kent pit. She will be speaking about the actions on the Economic League in the 1970s, providing blacklisting information to employers and the impact on militants in places such as Cowley car works and Kent coal field. An electrician who has worked in the construction industry for 40 years will talk about his experiences of victimisation and the campaign […]

Libres: Songs of the Spanish Revolution

Pilar Lopez’s performance about the Spanish Social Revolution of 1936 aims to draw inspiration from these amazing times, sharing the beauty and relevance of those events and making links with what's currently happening in Spain. In 1936, after a partially unsuccessful military coup and by popular demand, the libertarian unions took control of the organisation of society in many parts of Spain. In no time large portions of land and industry had been collectivised and belonged to the workers. This […]

Running down Whitehall with a black flag

Running down Whitehall with a black flag. Memories of anarchism in the 1960s Di Parkin was a revolutionary activist from the early 1960s to the 1980s. She was employed as a community worker and an Equal Opportunities Adviser. Her PhD was on opposition to the myth of National Unity in Second World War Britain and she published a book on the history of a militant coal mine (Betteshanger) in Kent Now retired, she devotes most of her energy to the Bristol Radical History group: working on recording […]