Introduction The last few years I have been playing word association games; asking people at work and at the pub to say the first thing that comes into their head about a particular historical event or figure. So typically the English Civil War carries mental images of 'laughing cavaliers', 'miserable roundheads' and blood-thirsty executions of kings, World War I produces 'mud, blood and barbed wire' and recently, PC Blakelock elicits 'brutal mob violence'. Of course some people and events […]
With Mat Callahan, Clayton Blizzard and Commander McNeil. Singer/songwriter Matt Callahan performs Songs of Freedom, a celebration of the life and work of James Connolly, the Irish revolutionary socialist who participated in the Dublin Lockout of 1913 and was martyred by the British government for his role in the Easter Rising of 1916. Connolly's role in both events was of crucial importance making it especially important that his collection Songs of Freedom, originally published in 1907 and […]
USA 2011
Brecht Forum, 451 West Street (between Bank & Bethune Streets, New York, NY 10014 Phone: (212) 242-4201 - Email: brechtforum at brechtforum.org Despite the cheerleading you may have seen in the media about the Diamond Jubilee of the British Monarch, a wave of nausea and apathy, rather than nationalism has suffused 'Albion' of late. Echoes of the English Revolution of the 1640s still haunt the British Royals; an historic event which led to the first modern popular Republic and culminated in […]
Winstanley – Andrew Mollo & Kevin Brownlow, UK / 1975 / 95 mins / cert 1 Join us and the Bristol Anarchist Bookfair Collective for this screening of a restored version of this important film from 1975. In the run up to the Bristol Anarchist Bookfair on 12 September, this film evokes some of the earliest examples of anarchist thought and practice. Indeed the occupations by the Diggers have been described by some as the first anarcho-communist revolution in history. The context of the film […]
Tickets available in advance from: Bristol Ticket Shop 26 Union Street Broadmead, BS1 2DP Tel: 0117 929 9008 Legendary protest singer Leon Rosselson celebrates his fiftieth year in music with a special performance with songwriter/activist Robb Johnson. The Liberty Tree is an evening of contemporary songs reflecting the revolutionary ideas of Thomas Paine. These were influenced by the American War of Independence and were to have a huge effect on the French Revolution and the fight for modern […]
On the 200th anniversary of Paine’s death, Peter Clark explains the contemporary importance of his writings that were so influential in the revolutionary ferment of the late 18th Century. Paine redefined the nature of political discourse with his ground-breaking views on human rights, democracy, the open society, racial equality, women's rights and the welfare state. Clark questions why this great British thinker is fêted in France and the United States yet remains a prophet without fortune in […]
Come and celebrate the life of one of Britain’s greatest yet least known radical thinkers, Thomas Paine. Under the light of the full moon, join us in toasting the memory of this hero of the French and American revolutions with stories round the bonfire, cider, pikes and guillotines. Dress: Fancy and French, Attitude: Seditious. Download an A4 poster for this event (1.2 MB jpeg file).
Radicalism, Monarchy And The Lost Liberties Of Anglo-Saxon Egland 1790-1820 - Steve Poole Although the English Jacobins of the 1790s were frequently characterised by their enemies as Republican followers of Tom Paine, in reality many of them could only commit to following Paine so far. The Rights of Man were all very well as long as they could be advocated without dumping long standing and cherished beliefs in an anglo-saxon golden age of elected chieftans and voluntary association - historical […]
The aim of this talk is to take a fresh look at the image of Britain’s first Public Enemy Number One: Thomas Paine. From the 1790s onwards, Paine’s political and religious writings symbolized everything that the British establishment feared about radical ideas and the rise of the ‘common’ reader. Paine ensured his terrorist credentials with the publication of the Rights of Man (1791-2), but this talk will focus on his other massively subversive book, Age of Reason (1795), a study in ‘infidel’ […]
The Tyrannicide Brief - Geoffrey Robertson Renowned human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC examines the first trial of a head of state - Charles I, and how this groundbreaking moment in history opened the way for the trials of Augusto Pinochet, Slobodan Milosevic, and Saddam Hussein. Robertson became a barrister in 1973 and a QC in 1988. His became well known acting for the defence in the celebrated English criminal trials of Oz, Gay News, the 'ABC Trial', The Romans in Britain (the […]
