Bristol Radical History Meetings

TWO public meetings coming up....

Pauper deaths and burials in Victorian England

Date: Thursday 15th October, 2015Time: 6:00pm-7.30pmVenue: Studio 1 & 2, First Floor, MSHED, Princes Wharf, Wapping Road, Bristol BS1 4RN
Map: http://www.bristolmuseums.org.uk/m-shed/getting-here/
Speaker: Roger Ball (BRHG and Eastville Workhouse Memorial Group)
Price: FreeFuneral ceremonies were very important to middle class Victorians, with detailed and often elaborate rituals to mark the passing of cherished family members. But for paupers who died in the workhouses, things were very different. Building on continuing research into the unmarked graves at the site of Eastville workhouse, Bristol, this talk exposes the contrast in treatment between rich and poor in death.
This meeting is organised by UWE Regional History Centre as part of its M Shed Seminar Programme, 2015-16.
Black Flags and Windmills: Creating power from below

Date: Thursday 22nd October, 2015Time: 7.30-9.30pmVenue: Hydra Bookshop, 34 Old Market St, Bristol, BS2 0EZ
Speaker: scott crow
Price: Donation
When both levees and governments failed in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the anarchist-inspired Common Ground Collective was created to fill the void. With the motto of 'Solidarity Not Charity', they worked to create power from below; building autonomous projects, programs, and spaces of self-sufficiency like health clinics and neighborhood assemblies, while also supporting communities defending themselves from white militias and police brutality, illegal home demolitions and evictions.
U.S. activist, scott crow, a co-founder of Common Ground, is the author of Black Flags and Windmills - in equal parts memoir, history and organizing philosophy - which vividly intertwines his experiences and ideas with Katrina’s reality, illustrating how people can build local grassroots power for collective liberation. It is a story of resisting indifference, rebuilding hope amid collapse and struggling against the grain to create better worlds.