by | 06/06/2012 · 12:00 pm

Bristol World Development Movement Meeting

Date: Wednesday 13th June
Time: 7:30pm

After 40 years of existence Bristol WDM needs your help. Over these years we have created a space for people to meet and discuss issues of global justice and campaign locally against the policies that keep the global south poor. But now, without more people to join our group of campaigners our future is looking shaky. We need new group members who can spare a few hours each month to reinvigorate our group and give us back our active spirit!

This is an opportunity to come together and be part of a national movement fighting for justice everywhere.  If you have ever come to one of our events and enjoyed the discussion, been inspired by a speaker or challenged by a documentary then you will know how important the space that Bristol WDM provides is.

If you think you can join us or are interested in finding out more come along and enjoy a zapatista coffee and an informal meeting.
We need people to:
– Organise speaker evenings hosting representatives from movements in the global south, lecturers with knowledge of the policies and people behind the headlines and local activists fighting to make another world possible.
– Research films and promote our monthly Global Justice Cinema
– Plan and organise stunts and campaigns to pressurise the decision makers to reform the policies that keep people poor.

Bristol WDM is proud to facilitate a relaxed, informal group and those who are involved already welcome fresh ideas and new perspectives.
Positions up for grabs:
– Group Coordinator
– Group Treasurer
– Events Officer
– Activism Officer
– Communications Officer

These posts are all flexible and you can make of them what you will.
WDM nationally also promises lots of opportunities for training, meeting groups and global justice activists from across the country and a regular updates about the movements struggling against injustice across the world.
If you want to have a quick chat about Bristol WDM please feel free to give Dan an email on danrowaniles@gmail.com
Find Bristol WDM on http://www.facebook.com/BristolWDM

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by | 05/06/2012 · 10:16 pm

Royal Babylon, The Criminal record of the British Monarchy

Saturday 9th of June 4:00pm

Reading of the Heathcote Williams poem by Jasper Britton

Handsome Dog Productions/ Bristol Radical History Group

POSTER

 

Royal Babylon comes to Bristol as part of a ‘road show’ that also includes Moscow, London, Dundee and Edinburgh. Actors Jasper Britton and Sean McCann will give a live  reading of Heathcote William’s poem to accompany screened images and footage.

To coincide with the Royal Jubilee the filmmaker collective at Handsome Dog have created a multimedia exhibition mixing the Best of British Rock, Punk, Pop and Electronic music (from bands such as Radiohead, The Sex Pistols, The Smiths and Primal Scream) with stills and archive footage to retell Heathcote Williams’ investigative poem “Royal Babylon:

Heathcote Williams has been a poet and agitator on “the last few things worth discussing” since his early twenties and his poem “Royal Babylon” was published on the internet in November 2011 to great acclaim and attention, with endorsements from fellow republicans Thom Yorke (Radiohead) and Morrisey (Smiths) amongst others.

Heathcote Williams is celebrated for many reasons; as writer, actor, painter, even conjurer. Heathcote’s foray into diplomacy came in 1977 when he became Ambassador to Great Britain for a London squat called Frestonia which declared independence. His epic ecological poems such as Whale Nation and Autogeddon were loved by a readership far beyond the usual poetry-reading circles. He continues to paint, poetise and rant on matters topical and historical.

Though no true poet needs a prompt, the current action against worldwide greed in the form of “Occupy London” served as fuel to the Republican fire for Mr.Williams and explains why he has dedicated so much time and research to the monarchy subject:

“There is a robust history in British Culture of anti-Monarchist feeling. I only hope that, since the information revolution, British People now have the courage to follow their artists’ lead.

The exhibition was originally mounted for the National Centre for Contempory Art Moscow (as part of a series of exhibitions entitled “Why Democracy?”).

If you advocate the nature of debate, recognise the excessive spending of the last two years on Royal antics and the gross waste of national resources in a time of financial crisis or are just opposed to the continued unquestioning state recognition of monolithic institutions, and un-democratically elected bodies… then this is for you…

Margaret Cox curator, creative producer, “Royal Babylon”

Handsome Dog Productions

BRHG

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by | 20/05/2012 · 1:00 am

The Truth is out There Somewhere, or is it? (Bristol Comunist Discussion Group)

Moved to Thursday 14th June at 7pm.

The Truth is out There Somewhere, or is it?

The Bristol Communist Discussion Group welcomes you all to a discussion on postmodernism and its effects on Marxism and left activism.

Admission free, donation for room hire welcome.

Postmodernism, the darling of social scientists and the curse of Marxists?

The fluidity of postmodernism prevents real change and innovation as everything can be reproduced. It deters theoretical debate and analysis as this no longer a requirement, its all been done before. It is an easy way out as it denies there is any truth or a ‘grand plan’.

For decades a mixture of postmodernism and Foucauldian influences have helped fragment the left. In his haste to counteract Marx, Foucault, a follower of Nietche, a nihilist philosopher, negated the fact that governments’ actions are determined by economic factors.

An underlying basis for postmodernism and Foucauldianism is construction theory whereby just about anything can be deconstructed and reconstructed. This theory can apply to whole nations as their value systems are smashed by the West and alternative ideologies imposed on them. It relates to the flow of capital and how loans are imposed on countries to force them to restructure; to the break up of companies regardless of the fact the directors remain super-rich as well as to how life style choices are imposed on people through the media.

Foucault saw that power was not confined to governments but rather that it permeated the whole of society. He did not deny the existence of unequal power relations but considered it was the ability of people to reconstruct themselves, for instance through representation in the media, that gave them power to challenge authority. On one hand this has changed public perceptions of certain groups but on the other it has increased individualism and resulted in activists proclaiming their right to a different lifestyle with no concept of how this lifestyle is to be achieved or sustained without it being absorbed into the mainstream.

To oppose the government we need to maintain a revolutionary basis to the struggle, acknowledge class differences, monopoly capitalism as well as social and cultural differences. All this requires analysis.

 

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by | 02/05/2012 · 7:00 am

The Friends of Durruti and the Maydays in Barcelona (1937) (BRHG Talk)

Saturday 5th May 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Speaker: Lee Groves (Bristol Radical History Group)
Price: Donations

This week marks the 75th anniversary of the ‘Barcelona Maydays‘ an uprising in response to the Republican Government’s attempt to seize power in revolutionary Catalonia during the Spanish Civil War. Tensions had been building over several months between the anarcho-syndicalist CNT membership and the Soviet controlled Republican army which centred on the questions of militarisation and ‘War or Revolution’?

When armed ‘Communist Party’ units attacked the Telephone exchange in Barcelona, thousands of workers responded with an initially ‘successful’ armed insurrection. The Friends of Durruti group were central within this opposition and openly criticised the collaboration of the CNT leadership with the Republican Government.

This talk will examine the events of May 1937, why and how the insurrection was eventually defeated as well as the actions and arguments of the Friends of Durruti group. The fundamental question remains ‘should the anarchists have seized power to further the revolution’?

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by | 01/05/2012 · 7:00 am

The Haymarket, Chicago and Mayday (BRHG Talk)

Date: Friday 4th 6:00pm – 7:30 pm

Speaker: Roger Ball (Bristol Radical History Group)

Price: Donations

On Tuesday May 4th 1886 near the Haymarket, Chicago, police attempted to violently disperse 200 remaining members of a peaceful demonstration called to protest about the police killing the day before of two workers at a strike at the McCormick Reaper Works. As the police moved against the crowd a bomb was thrown by an unknown person which killed a police officer and in the ensuing chaos the police opened fire killing and wounding demonstrators and police alike.

In the days following the incident hundreds of workers were rounded up by the authorities and eighteen months later four anarchist labour organisers were executed, another committed suicide and several others were given life imprisonment. The trial was seen worldwide as a travesty of justice and an attack on those fighting for the 8 hour working day.

May 1st became workers day, labour day, Mayday commemorating the incident in the Haymarket in 1886. This talk will look at the history of the events, the strange narratives of the memorials and how Mayday is remembered in Chicago.

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