Bristol Radical History Group

Details of upcoming Nov/Dec events, see you there.... Remembering the Dublin Lockout 1913-2013 Speaker: John Newsinger Date: Thursday 14th November, 2013 Time: 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm Venue: Room 202/203, Tony Benn House (Unite), Victoria Street, Bristol BS1 6AY Price: Donation http://www.brh.org.uk/site/events/remembering-dublin-lockout-1913-2013/ Book Launch: In Letters of Blood and Fire: Work, Machines, and the Crisis of Capitalism Speaker: George Caffentzis Date: Tuesday 19th November, 2013 Time: 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm Venue: Hydra Bookshop, 34 Old Market St, Bristol, BS2 0EZ Price: Donation http://www.brh.org.uk/site/events/in-letters-of-blood-and-fire/ The Game of Drones Date: Saturday 30th November, 2013 Time: 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm Venue: Hydra Bookshop, 34 Old Market St, Bristol, BS2 0EZ With: Heathcote Williams, Alan Cox, Price: Donation Film screening of Game of Drones: The President and the White House Fly (Handsome Dog Productions, 2013). Investigative poem on topical issue of ‘Unmanned Aerial Vehicles’. Written by Heathcote Williams; Narration and Montage by Alan Cox; produced by Margaret Cox. Screening will be introduced by anti-Drone campaigner John from Bath Activist Network. About Heathcote Williams: "I'd say the overwhelming feature of these poems and perhaps of Williams' whole oeuvre is a sense of the development of an argument, either in favour of a cause or in opposition to what he clearly perceives as either an idiocy or a malign government or establishment force. Yet he's rarely narrowly didactic and at his best his 'argument', whatever that may be, comes through experience and the development of empathy and understanding. In this sense he's a bit like George Orwell and Charles Dickens, using language as a weapon on behalf of the defenceless and in defence of sanity. Yet there's also a delight in language for its own sake, not something he takes to excess but it's there nonetheless and his writing is all the better for it." (Huxley Scientific Press) Handsome Dog Productions: Anarcho-Pacifist documentary filmmakers supporting the work of one of the best and most neglected living English poets - Heathcote Williams - and pioneering a new art form bringing ponetry to the screen. Heathcote's work uses "language as a weapon on behalf of the defenceless and in defence of sanity". Why was Charles I executed? Justice, liberties and popular petitioning in 1648-49 Date: Monday 2nd December, 2013 Time: 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm Venue: Hydra Bookshop, 34 Old Market St, Bristol, BS2 0EZ With: Norah Carlin Price: Donation The regicide of 1649 has often been presented by books, articles and TV dons as the result of religious beliefs related to the King's role as a 'Man of Blood', whose own blood must be shed to deliver England from the taint of killing and the fear of God's vengeance. However the evidence suggests a far more sophisticated political response rooted in the concepts of 'Justice and Liberties' displayed in both public and military petitions. 'Justice' signified what we would now call war crimes trials (and not just of the king), while the word 'liberties' was used at the time to describe far-reaching and permanent constitutional reforms. Norah Carlin will present her new research into this fascinating period, when not only the monarchy but the Parliament which had sat for the past eight years were confronted for their crimes. Norah Carlin lectured in history at Middlesex Poly/University for her whole career, retiring in 2002 to her home town of Edinburgh. She is the author of The Causes of the English Civil War, published by Blackwell's in 1999 , a number of journal articles on the Levellers, Cromwellian attitudes to Ireland and similar themes; and contributed a great diversity of articles over many years to International Socialism, Socialist Review and Socialist Worker. _______________________________ Brhmob mailing list Brhmob@brh.org.uk http://www.brh.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/brhmob