Stop,Look,Listen…my weekly selection of favourite films, books and events to get you out of the house

Watch…..two films and hear some live music…Manchester Film Cooperative’s next event is at the Antwerp Mansion in downtown Rusholme. Antwerp Mansion is: a renovation project, aiming to turn a beautiful but run down Victorian Mansion into a Music, Art and Photography Haven. See
On 24 April from 6.30pm MFC are showing Invisible Circus, a film about Bristol’s anarchist circus over three years. This is followed at 8.30pm by the excellent film Exit Through the Gift Shop in which artist Banksy tells the story of Thiweey Guetta, a French immigrant in Los Angeles and his obsession with street art. Throughout the evening there is live music from local folk group Richard Barry and the Chaps.
Entrance fee, an incredible £5/34.

Celebrate…on May 1 it’s the 39th birthday of co-operative bookshop News From Nowhere in Liverpool. Not just a bookshop, but an essential part of the Liverpool left scene. There is a whole day of events including a talk by NFN stalwart Mandy Vere on the history of the shop and how they have managed to keep an independent radical bookshop and co-operative afloat in these Amazon times.

Read……..Bedsit Disco Queen;How I Grew Up and Tried to be a Popstar…Tracey Thorn was the other half of 80s pop duo Everthing But the Girl. Her biography is a sweet and insightful glimpse into growing up in the 80s. Like me she went to Hull University and was influenced by the politics of the era which appeared in some of their songs. Before EBYG she was in a woman’s band the Marine Girls. She captures the excitement of punk…. It triggered in me a passion for pop music She is also challenged by the feminism of that time..I had discovered feminism and through my reading of Germaine Greer,Betty Friedan and Kate Millet I was finding a theoretical famework for many of the grievances I’d had since I was a teenager. Looking back at this era -she is now in her 50s -she is aware of how things have changed for young women in an industry where artifice and concealment seem most in evidence. EBTG were a great pop band because Tracey and Ben were interested in writing and performing well written songs with good melodies and it is that sincerity that comes out this book. Buy it from NFN, of course.

Find out more about the NHS……….Socialist Health Association are organising a seminar at Manchester University about the NHS. Find out about how the NHS works and how you can get involved. Its more important to do so now then ever before. The SHA has existed since the 60s and has campaigned for a universal healthcare system based on socialist principles . For more information see….

Another film….Palestinian Womens’ Scholarship fund event on Sunday 28 April 2013 at 2-5pm at Denshaw Village Hall, Saddleworth OL3 5SJ . All money raised will go to support women in Gaza and the West Bank through university education.The film - And Still they Dance charts the visit of young men and women from the Jabalia Refugee camp,Gaza to Sheffield and what has become of them since. The Palestinian film maker will be present. Tickets are £8 or £4 concessions and includes light refreshments.For tickets or more information ring 07975 908409 or email saddleworth.pwsf@gmail.com

Support our libraries…..Oldham Council Libraries are hosting a BOOKMARK FESTIVAL – Murder, Comedy And Television, from 20 -26 April, a weeklong celebration of all things literary in the borough. Meet authors, find out about writing for TV and listen to poets. Further details see

And in the week that Thatcher died….listen to Selma James, one of the most outstanding feminist thinkers of her time, debate her legacy with Edwina Curry, ex-MP and Thatcher clone, on the BBC’s Broadcasting House see

Stop,Look,Listen…my weekly selection of favourite films, books and events to get you out of the house

Watch…….William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe(DVD) You may have heard of Chartist journalist and lawyer Ernest Jones who went to prison for his politics in the 19th Century or Gareth Pierce and Michael Mansfield who have taken a rigorous political view of their trade as lawyers. William Kunstler, In the United States in the 1960s, took an equally political view of his role as a lawyer. In this film made by his daughters they examine why he took a path that led to him and his family facing their own trial by the media and the public. Kunstler came from a respectable middle-class Jewish family, became a major in the American army during the Second World War and then followed the usual middle-class path of becoming a lawyer, marrying and having two children, and living in a wealthy suburb of New York state. By the 1960s, however, he had abandoned this life style and became a radical civil rights lawyer. He represented civil rights activists in the South of America, the Chicago 10, who were on trial for protesting against the Vietnam War, and prisoners in the notorious Attica Prison. The film-makers are the daughters from his second marriage, who were on the frontline of Kunstler’s life as he moved his legal practice to the basement of their family home in central New York. It is fascinating to see the mixture of home movies and family films interspersed with TV news of Kunstlers’ legal cases and the reaction of the media and politicians to his work. During the Chicago trial he was himself sentenced to prison for contempt (although it was overturned on appeal ). It is hard to imagine that today any lawyer would put themselves on the line for their politics in the same way. The New York Times is quoted about Kunstler as “the most hated and most loved lawyer in America.” Watch the DVD and you will understand why.

Read..…When The Sky Rained White With Fire by Musheir El-Farrar (Sheffield Palestine Solidarity Campaign, £8.99) Musheir is from Gaza and his book tells the true story of the 21 days of the Israeli Operation Cast Lead in 2008. Musheir interviewed 17 families who describe their horrific experience, an experience that makes you want to stop reading as the details are so awful. The launch of this important book is on Wednesday 30th January 2013 at 7.00pm in Friends Meeting House (behind Central Library) Manchester.

Listen to …some Lancashire dialect…From Tum Fowt to Windmill Land: Allen Clarke, Bolton’s literary champion of the working classes. Bolton Library and Museums Services are marking the 150th anniversary of the birth of local dialect author Allen Clarke with an event at Bolton Central Library on Saturday 23 February from 11am to 1pm. Speakers include Paul Salveson, MBE, author of a book on Clarke, and Clarke’s grand-daughter Shirley Matthews Clarke. Admission free.

Celebrate….. Lancashire Archives is hosting its celebration of LGBT History Month, Outing the Past 3!, on Saturday 2 February, from 11am to 4pm.The day will be free, including lunch. Speakers include Teresa Nixon, West Yorkshire Archives Service on the Diaries of Anne Lister; Robert Thompson, Lesbian and Gay Newsmedia Archive, on the press treatment of homosexuality in the 1950s and 1960s; and Kaye Mitchell, University of Manchester, on 1950s lesbian pulp fiction.
Further information from Kathryn Rooke, Lancashire Record Office, Bow Lane, Preston PR1 2RE; email record.office@lancashire.gov.uk; tel 01772 533032.

See a play………. for today…on Fri 25th, Sat 26th, Mon 28th & Wed 30th January, & Fri 1st February – Burjesta Theatre: The Pied Piper of Liverpool 7.30pm at The Casa, Hope Street, L1 9BQ - Sometime in the near future, Liverpool is a city in crisis. As the Mayor closes down hospitals, schools and libraries, a plague of rats overruns the city. Come from ‘afar’ the Pied Piper soon realises that all is not as it seems at the Town Hall. Look forward to seeing the dastardly ‘Lord Rug’, the villainous ‘Runcorn Local’, the seductive ‘Dame Hoodless’ and lovelorn Jennifer whose hearts pounds in vain for the Pied Piper. Will the noble Queen Rat rally ‘Ratkind’ to avoid a dreadful end? Will troubled 16 year-old Anthony come to the fore to save the day? And what does the Pied Piper’s Sparrow have to teach us about the meaning of life?
Not suitable for children! Tickets £5 – pay on the door or reserve on 07913 449 396

More info on Burjesta Theatre see

Look…….one of my favourite poets and artists William Blake is the subject of a new exhibition at John Rylands Library (a fascinating building) Burning Bright Focusing on his achievements in the art of books, this exhibition features designs and prints by the artist and poet William Blake, whilst also examining the creative impact of his works. You can visit the exhibition from 8 February until 23 June, but if you can’t wait until then, there is a programme launch event on Thursday 31 January at 6pm, where you are invited to celebrate forthcoming events and exhibitions over a glass of wine and nibbles.

Book review: Special Category; The IRA in English Prisons vol.1; 1968-78

Special Category: The IRA in English Prisons vol.1; 1968-1978 by Ruan O’Donnell
Irish Academic Press ISBN 978 0 7165 3141 8

It will come as a surprise to many people in this country that there have been political prisoners in English jails. In this book Ruan O’Donnell provides a comprehensive account of who they were, why they were there and what both the British government and the prisoners themselves felt about the situation.

We are, of course, talking about Irish prisoners who were in English jails from the late 1960s onwards because of Britain’s occupation of the Six Counties of Ireland (otherwise known as Northern Ireland) and the unresolved political situation which affected both sides of the Irish border and Britain, and also had an international dimension.

What is amazing about this book is the way in which Ruan has used an array of sources. He has interviewed many participants – including prisoners and their families – as well as using private collections of correspondence and papers, state archives, declassified documents and official records of parliamentary business. His attention to detail is incredible; in one chapter there are over 300 footnotes!

There have been Irish prisoners in British jails going back to the United Irishmen in the 1790s. In this book Ruan looks at a ten year period, beginning with the new phase of the Troubles in 1968. After this date the numbers of Irish Republicans jailed increased and the tactics of the British Government towards these prisoners changed. And, as the numbers of Republican prisoners in English jails grew, they organised against an increasingly harsh prison regime;
It was no coincidence that the first two fatal hunger strikes of the modern Troubles occurred in England and that events within the Dispersal System resonated, often powerfully,on Irish soil over three decades.

In the 1970s I went to a predominantly Irish secondary school in the heart of the Irish community in Manchester and, whilst the main agenda for the hierarchy of this Catholic school was to deliver law- abiding British children, there were Irish teachers who were Republican minded. I remember vividly one Irish nun telling us about the interned Irish prisoners in the Six Counties and their harsh conditions. And in that Irish area (like many parts of Britain in the 70s) houses were being raided by the police and Irish people were being dragged off to police stations. Many years later I would be involved in the various miscarriage of justice campaigns that had sprung up (driven by the relatives of the prisoners) to get justice for the well-known (such as the Birmingham 6) and the less well-known (such as Frank Johnson and Kate Magee).

One civil rights activist, a nun named Sister Sarah Clarke, played a significant role over twenty-five years in providing support to Irish prisoners and their families. She worked in London and, in her autobiography, explained how the effects of the war in Ireland affected the Irish in Britain:

The Irish population in British cities found themselves under attack by formerly friendly neighbours and an increasingly repressive and sophisticated police force.

The Irish community in Britain has always played a significant role in opposing Britain’s occupation of Ireland but, as the war intensified and the IRA brought its actions to England, it was the community which took the backlash. The British Government rushed through the Prevention of Terrorism Act in 1974 after the Birmingham pub bombings which, whilst not stopping IRA activity, did severely curtail democratic debate in this country about the war going on in Northern Ireland. From 1974 to the early 1980s very few Irish people, and even less English people, wanted to be seen to be taking part in any public opposition to the eroding of civil and human rights of Irish people on both sides of the Irish Sea.

Ruan puts this into context and weaves together some of the campaigning work done by outstanding people such as Sister Sarah on behalf of prisoners and their families. She had been active from the 1960s but, after 1973, was barred from visiting prisoners. She only found out in 1985 that she had been stopped from being an approved visitor on the grounds of “security”. In her biography, No Faith In The System (1995), she outlines her reasons for her tireless work for Irish prisoners.

Whilst IRA prisoners in English jails asserted their Republican political views, for those individuals such as the Birmingham 6, Guildford 4, Maguire 7 and others who were victims of miscarriages of justice, in effect convicted of being Irish in the wrong place at the wrong time, it is heartbreaking to read the accounts of their unjust treatment by all levels of the police, courts and prison system. As Ruan says about the Maguire family;

Their case was arguably the single worst incidence of judicial abuse perpetrated under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and indicated that any Irish person, regardless of age, gender or political orientation, was liable to face imprisonment if elements of the British Establishment so desired.

Patrick, the youngest of the Maguire family, was only 13 when he was arrested with his family. Using later discredited forensic tests the police said the family had handled the explosive nitroglycerine. Patrick served four years, mainly in adult prisons. He was refused parole because he continued to assert his innocence. In 1991 all the convictions of the Maguire 7 were quashed as the evidence was ruled as unsafe.

Patrick is now a talented artist, while his biography My Father’s Watch has been turned into a play. Probably most importantly he, like Paddy Hill of the Birmingham 6, has gone on to help other prisoners who have been unjustly jailed in the organisation The Miscarriages of Justice Organisation

As the number of Irish Republican prisoners in English jails increased, they took part in a variety of strategies to seek their freedom. This included escapes, riots and legal challenges. They became very important in the Republican strategy for resolving the political situation in the Six Counties and, as we saw in the negotiations in the 1990s leading to the Good Friday Agreement, the prisoners had a major influence in the settlement. Ruan’s book covers the first part of this story up to 1978. It is a fascinating and important history of the Irish struggle, and makes one look forward to the next volume.

Political Women (5) Rae Street

Feminist, peace activist, environmentalist…..

Rae has been active in the peace movement for over 30 years. Born in Yorkshire, she didn’t come from a political family:

My mother was a working class conservative, due to growing up in dire poverty, where her earnings supported her family. From a Polish, Jewish immigrant family, she worked in a factory and she was desperate to become respectable”
Her father went at the age of 12 to work as a halftimer in the office of a local factory. His mother was widowed in 1918 and brought up him and his sister.

Rae benefitted from the post Second World War expansion of the education system:

I passed the 11+ and went to a High School. The teachers, who were mainly spinsters, did not like working class children entering the school. Luckily they had to draft in new teachers and I had a wonderful history teacher who taught us about socialism. The parents did not like it and complained to the head teacher!

She then got a place at Manchester University to study English but, unlike many of the students, she had to pay her way throughout her studies:

I felt like a fish out of water, with a Yorkshire accent and also I had to work every holiday to support myself at University. But I felt I learnt more from those jobs than I did in my studies.

Rae feels that there was a definite discrimination against her due to her accent and also her poverty:

I watched the Aldermaston March and, although I felt strongly about the issue, I felt I didn’t belong on the march because everyone seemed so posh.

After leaving University she turned down an opportunity to do research at Manchester because she didn’t know how she could fund herself through it and the Professor did not mention payment:

I just didn’t have the confidence to ask him about the money side so I gave up what could have been an interesting opportunity. But I returned to Leeds, completed a secretarial course, and eventually became a Publicity and Information Officer at what became Bradford University.

Her interest in peace work came out because of the times she was living in

I read the book Silent Spring by Rachel Carson which alerted people to the detrimental affects of chemicals in the environment. I also watched the film, Hiroshima Mon Amour, which woke me up to the tragedy of Hiroshima.

In the late 70s she joined the Labour Party, and became active locally. In 1981 Rae joined her local Peace group in Rochdale which was affiliated to the national Campaign for Nuclear Disarnment.

In 1981 the decision by the Tory Government to site Cruise Missiles at Greenham Common in Berkshire led to the establishment of the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp. It became the focus for peace activists, many of whom were women. In December 1982, 30,000 women joined hands around the base at the Embrace the Base event:

Greenham was a liberating influence for me and the campaign has had a long lasting effect. I went down to the Embrace the Base event. I took my youngest daughter, who was 8 years at the time, unfortunately she witnessed the police horses who were out of control, women were arrested and thrown in police vans. She was really upset by the violence and after that I decided I couldn’t leave her for long periods.

Rae’s activity grew with the peace movement. She became involved in the European Campaign for Nuclear Disarnment and in 1986 she took part in a lecture tour of the USA:

I spoke at many meetings, from large university halls to community and women’s group. It was a great success and for me personally it was a great success, they couldn’t hear my accent and there was no class bias

She has visited and spoken in Japan, particularly around the commemoration of Hiroshima:
The peace movement there is amazing. There are many young activists, their peace bulletin has over 1 million subscribers!

Over the years Rae has held many posts in local and national CND. Including chair of the Greater Manchester and District CND and Vice chair of national CND. She also founded the Campaign Against Depleted Uranium Weapons and is on the steering committee of the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons.

I have taken part and ‘carried the banner’ over the years in many non-violent demonstrations, rallies, blockades, sit ins and just standing with placards. Locally I am a strong believer for campaigning in a visible presence: streets stalls and letters to the local press – and that I have done.

Rae has been able to be so active because her husband has been supportive. Her daughters have also been active in the peace movement. One of her daughters was arrested aged 16 at Greenham Common peace camp.

More recently Rae has been trying to bring more young people into the peace movement:

We have been trying to set up groups in Universities and looking at how we can encourage younger people into the movement. We have got a group of young people involved with the anti-Uranium weapons campaign. Through events such as our Peace festival we do try and get younger people to join us.

And her message for young women?

Get involved. It’s not a distant issue. Trident and anti-militarism are important issues. Never feel you cannot do something, whether it is in a local peace group or through your trade union. Don’t think that politics is for someone else, it is for everyone.

Eva Gore- Booth: Irish feminist, political activist, poet..

Eva Gore- Booth An Image of such politics by Sonja Tiernan (Manchester University Press) ISBN 978-0-7190-8232-0

Ruth and Eddie Frow were the first people to tell me about Eva Gore- Booth and her companion and fellow activist Esther Roper. They had researched and written about them in the 1980s and felt that, because I was involved in trade union and Irish politics, I should know about two women who had played a significant, if forgotten, role in the history of working class and the Irish on both sides of the Irish sea.

They would be very pleased with Sonja’s book. Not only is it well researched but it is written in an interesting and accessible way. The story of Eva is not just her own history, but also that of her lifetime companion, Esther Roper, and Eva’s sister, Constance Markievicz. Her life was played out in an era that was exciting and a time of massive changes: historically, economically and politically.

Eva was born in Sligo, Ireland on 22 May 1870. Her family were landowning aristocrats and she enjoyed an idyllic life as a child, for her and her sister, spending their time reading, writing poetry and painting, and, like many young women of her class they travelled extensively. However on reaching young adultdood it was a stultifying and limited future that was on offer for her. It was when she was in Italy, in 1896, recuperating from an illness that she met Esther Roper, a meeting that would complete change her life. Esther commented that Eva “..seems to have been haunted by the suffering of the world, and to have had a curious feeling of responsibility for its inequalities and injustices”.

Esther Roper was of Irish descent, born in Chorley Lancashire in 1868. Her parents were working class. “Roper held a unique insight into class structure. She was an educated woman named after an aunt who had worked as a cotton weaver from the age of twelve”. Her parents were missionaries abroad which meant that Esther was one of the first women to get access to an education. By the time she was 20 both her parents were dead and she was responsible for her 13 year old brother. A year later she gained a first class degree at the University of Manchester, and decided to campaign for womens’ equality. In 1893 Esther became the paid secretary of the Manchester National Society for Women’s Suffrage.

Esther told Eva of her work and she moved to Manchester in 1897. It must have been a shock to go from the beauty of rural Ireland, and a rich lifestyle, to a smokey, overpopulated city. Ironically there were more Irish people living there than in Sligo. “In the early 1860s 860,000 Irish were living in England and over half of this population were living in Lancashire and Cheshire”.

Manchester was the first industrial city and was also the cradle of the women’s movement. Thousands of women worked in the mills and factories. Esther and Eva decided to campaign to ensure that these women who were affected most by the industial in which world they lived and worked would gain representation and equality. Influenced by ideas from the French Revolution, they sought equality for women in all areas of their lives. Crucially they saw that thousands of women workers were paying taxes but had no political representation. They also believed that it was the organisation of women into trade unions that would lead to them gaining the vote. Their work in the Manchester and Salford Women’s Trades Union Council led to the creation of many unions specifically for women. By 1904 the labour movement officially supported suffrage for working class women.

Eva shared her love of poetry and drama with working class women in inner city Manchester. Unknown to them she was a talented poet and dramatist and part of the Celtic revival of the early 1900s.

Eva was a pacifist but, being Irish, she was aware of the injustices going on in Ireland. Ireland was still occupied by the British, and from the 1890s to 1920s her sister, Constance Markievicz, was involved in the political and military campaign to gain independence. Eva, whilst opposing physical force politics, supported her sister and her comrades, not just in publicising the barbarity of the British response to the Easter Rising of 1916, but in providing material support to the families of whose husbands had been executed or imprisoned.

During the First World War Eva opposed the war, a stance which was very unpopular to begin with, and worked tirelessly to support conscientious objectors and their families.

Eva and Esther lived during a period of history that saw massive changes in this country. They were active in many of the campaigns that led to the growth of democracy in Britain. For Eva it meant she went against her upbringing and family, but with Esther she found a relationship that allowed her to flourish as a woman and political activist. As Sonja says “Roper was a remarkable character and was clearly the greatest influence on Gore-Booth’s personal, literary and political life.”

Sonja’s book is important in profiling two significant women who understood clearly that class matters. They were at the forefront of not just the women’s campaign for the vote but understood that working class women could be significant figures in their own struggle. Eva and Esther, from their own personal experience, saw that women needed practical support to become political activists. I think there are still lessons today that we can learn from women such as Eva and Esther and that is why this is an important and interesting book for all political activists; women and men. As Sonja says “The story of her (Eva) revolutionary life shows a person devoted to the ideal of a free and independent Ireland and a woman with a deep sense of how class and gender equality can transform lives and legislation”.

Manchester Marxman

To get the most out of life you must be active, you must live and you must have the courage to taste the thrill of being young”
Engels 1840

Friedrich Engels, was born in Germany in 1820. He was an industrialist, political activist, writer, political theorist, and with Karl Marx he was the co-author of Marxist theory. From an early age he was politically active and his parents sent him to Manchester in 1842 to work for the family firm and to remove him from his revolutionary activities at home.

They could not have been more wrong. In Manchester he lived a double life. With his wealthy business friends he indulged in all the delights of the big city. He regularly drank in the pubs, rode to hounds, was a swordsman and spoke many languages.But unknown to his respectable friends he had a relationship with an Irish factory worker, Mary Burns, and it was Mary who showed him the other side to Manchester and Salford.He lived with Mary until her death in 1863.

His walks with Mary through the appalling slum areas of Manchester and Salford led to his seminal work The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844.

In the introduction to the 1969 edition of Engels’ The Condition of the Working Class in England Marxist historian EJ Hobsbawn commented that “It remains an indispensable work and a landmark in the fight for the emancipation of humanity.”

But of what relevance does it have in 2012? Actor and director Jimmy Fairhurst of theatre group, Not Too Tame, feels it has a resonance with the lives of working-class people today, particularly in austerity Britain. “I couldn’t believe it was written in 1844. Engels could be talking about today”. Jimmy was so inspired by the book that he wanted to “provide a platform for working class people to find out about Engels and explore his work”.

His latest production is a partnership with film company Inside Film, with funding provided by Brunel University where they are based. He has got together 25 people of ages ranging from 13 years upwards to “look again at the condition of the working class in England, today, working from Engels book and their own experiences to create a show of dramatic sketches,songs and performances poetry.”

Many of the volunteers on the project have never been involved with politics before but in reading Engels text they have been able to very easily see its modern day relevance. Rosie said “My dad is always nagging me to get involved with politics, as he says, I am the next generation. Being involved with the project has made me more aware of what is going on and that nothing has really changed since 1844.”

Another volunteer, Jenny, is from an Irish background and works with asylum seekers. She was amazed by the contemporary nature of the book. “My family are Irish, my gran came over from Dublin and I can see parallels with the way they were treated and how it is acceptable to discriminate against some people”

The play will only have four performances,but will be filmed by Inside Film and Jimmy is enthusiastic about the future for political theatre. “People want to see drama about their lives. We need to find ways to make it accessible, to bring it to the pub or the community centre.”

The Condition of the Working Class will be performed at the Salford Arts Theatre July 5 & 6
and at the nexus Art cafe > July 7&8

http://www.nottootametheatre.com/see

http://www.insidefilm.org/who-we-are see

picture courtesy of Salford Star – see website for more about Fred.

Stop, Look, Listen………excerpts from my Roman Holiday…….

Watch…Christ stopped at Eboli (DVD) originally a book by Carlo Levi, an anti-fascist, who in 1935 was sent into internal exile by Mussolini. The title comes from a saying by southern Italians that the area has been neglected even by God. Levi was shocked by the poverty of the peasants, not just a material one but their despair, fuelled by superstition and ill health. A doctor, he used his medical skills to help them and they responded with friendship and by breaking the censorship imposed on him by Mussolini. Levi eventually became a Communist Senator in the Italian Parliament. The book was published in 1949 and the film was made thirty years later. A moving and powerful film, it is a brilliant insight into the importance of politics to people’s lives.

Look..……Whilst in Rome last week I went to a meal with Italian lefties. They were despairing of the financial state of the country and I asked about the Occupy movement. Their response was negative, that young people were not active etc. The following day many young and older Italians demonstrated at the Pantheon (one of the most important Roman heritage sites) against the austerity agenda in Italy. You can view footage at Libera TV.

Listen to the CD Filippa (Giordano) . Many classical favourites sung by a wonderful Italian female singer. You can see her on Youtube.

meanwhile back in the North West…

Loiter at the Secret Garden Festival with events in Salford and Trafford until 23 June, including  ‘No Rubbish Tipped Here’,  alternative gardens and unlikely playgrounds…If there’s an empty space,  people will play in it!

Go to the  Future Artists Film Club

THE FUTURE ARTISTS FILM CLUB or the love of indie film.
Join the group! http://futureartists.co.uk/about/

events include

- ‘WE ARE POETS’ + ‘MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ THE ARTIST IS
PRESENT’
Tuesday, July 3, 2012 7:45 PM until Tuesday, July 10, 2012 10:00 PM

Leila Khaled; Icon of Palestinian Liberation

Sarah Irving, Leila Khaled Icon of Palestinian Liberation
Pluto Press ISBN 987-0-7453-2951-2

Reading this book reminded me of another icon in my own community, Bernadette Devlin McAliskey. Like Leila, she grew up in an occupied country and has spent her life campaigning for a democratic and just solution to the division of Ireland. She has faced assassination, censorship and marginalisation in the Irish political system. She became an hero to the Irish community in the 60s when families,such as mine, across Britain watched (and cheered) when she took to the barricades to defend her community against the massed ranks of the RUC and British Army.

About the same time Leila Khaled was hijacking a plane from Rome to Damascus where the plane nose was blown up. She made the world headlines because she was a young attractive woman involved in militant action. This book is fascinating because the author weaves together the history of the Palestinians with the story of a woman and her struggle not just as a soldier but as a wife, mother, teacher and campaigner and activist in the Palestinian National Council and a leader in the General Union of Palestinian Women.

Sarah wrote the book after a series of interviews with Leila in Amman in 2008. She tells Leila’s story but also says that she wants “to explore some of the issues and passions she arouses; how do militants whose careers start with violent action end them in the arena of political negotiation and discussion? Why, and how, do people – especially women – decide to follow the path of armed struggle and what do they gain and lose.”

Leila Khaled was born to a lower middle class family in Haifa on 9 April 1944. By the age of four her family, and most other Palestinians, had been forced to leave the city by Israeli armed groups, including the Irgun and Haganah. Their escape to the Lebanon made a deep imprint on her life, “At home, Paestinians families were in a miserable state.Whatever we asked for was rejected by our parents, especially our mother as our father wasn’t there. Whenever we asked why? The answer was; because we ‘are not in Palestine’. All the deprivation we lived in, was because ‘we are not in Palestine.’ Like many Palestinian, she was politicised by her forced exile and a return to her homeland was, for her, the crucial issue in identity and nationhood.

As children do in war zones she learnt her politics early. At the age of 14, when conflict broke out in the Lebanon in the late 1950s, she was delivering bread to fighters in the front line.She then became part of the Arab Nationalist Movement , which sought to unite all Arab countries against the US and European imperialism. By 1967 she had joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine which reflected the different conditions on the Arab countries and had a more decentralised structure to take this into account.

The PFLP is a Marxist organisation, influenced by the experiences of its own militants and the writings of Che Guevara and philospher, Frantz Fanon. Spurred on by the defeat of Arab armies in the Six Day War, in 1967 Leila decided to become a fighter in the PFLP. After military training she went onto play a major role in bringing the Palestinian struggle to the attention of the world through the tactic of plane hijackings. It was a path that led to her becoming a worldwide public figure, but one of the repercussions of this notoriety was the assassination of her sister and her sister’s fiance in 1976 in Beirut. Leila was the intended target. as she was part of the armed resistance which was defending Palestinian refugee camps from the Lebanese army and Christian militias.

From the late 70s she became involved with women’s organisations as a PFLP’s representative in the General Union of Palestinian Women. Her interest and commitment to women’s politics has been influenced by her own experiences, not just as a political figure but as a wife and mother. As she says; “all those years, until 1982 to 1992 I was based in Syria. I had to balance work and the children.It was the same for other women comrades, so we began to discuss the issues of women comrades who became mothers.. but what about the men? So we took a decision that all comrades were responsible for caring for the children.”

Leila now lives in Jordan and is still in the PFLP, although left wing organisations have been marginalised in Palestinian politics. The decline of the left has been to the advantage of fundamentalist parties such as Hamas who are the main party in Palestine.Leila is still an activist, as well as representative for the PFLP, taking part in international conferences including the World Social Forum which she sees as important in building solidarity across the world.This has led to some interesting networking, including a PFLP statement of solidarity to striking Italian metalworkers in February 2011 saying; “It’s time to change,it’s time to revolt against all kinds of oppression and corruption. It’s time to establish a new system based on social justice,freedom of speech and expression.”

Leila Khaled has been an activist in Palestinian politics for over fifty years and in this book there are many interesting reflections on her past activism as well as the rise of Hamas, womens role in politics and controversial subjects such as suicide bombings. Sarah Irving has written a thought provoking and insightful book for all of us wanting to become involved in politics whether at a local or national level.

Stop! Look! Listen! my weekly selection of favourite films, books and events to get you out of the house…

Watch…The King of Comedy (1983) One Of Martin Scorsese’s finest films, although it was not one of his most successful when it came out in 1983. A mixture of fantasy and real life it features Robert DeNiro as Rupert Pupkin, a man with dreams of being a famous comedian. He stalks Jerry Langford (played by Jerry Lewis) whose character is based on Johnny Carson, the acclaimed comedian and talkshow host. Nowadays we are too aware of the celebrity culture and its domination of the psyche (and tv screens) so this film was prescient of its times. Painful to watch, but incredibly clever, it is Scorsese at his best.

Read…An Act of Love (2011) by Alan Gibbons. Alan is not just a writer, but an activist and founder of the Campaign to Save the Book. This is the story of two boys who grow up together through the 90s and 2000s. One of the young boys is white and the other Pakistani. The story is set against the rise of fascism in small towns in the north and also the growing tension in the Asian community as Britain and the USA invade and occupy Afghanistan and Iraq. There is lots more in the book, but for me I love the story of the young men’s friendship and the way in which Alan creates working-class male characters that are humane, complex and compelling.

Listen…Searching for the Young Soul Rebels (1980) A fabulous album by Dexys Midnight Runners. Led by Kevin Rowlands – not just the front man but the main man! Part of his search for his Irish identity the front cover shows a riot in Belfast as a young Catholic boy is caught by the camera as he makes his escape. Part of a whole Irish renaissance in the 80s, Rowlands mixes songs about being proud of your Irish heritage as in “Burn it Down” to “Geno” a celebration of soul singer Geno Washington. After 25 years the band is about to bring out a new album called One Day I’m Going to Soar which includes more musing on his Irishness identity “Take your Irish stereotype and shove it up your arse”. So nothing changes. Cannot wait to see the stage show!!!!!

Join the debate……. Was the election of George Galloway and 5 Respect councillors in Bradford a one-off, or part of a larger process, and what are the implications for trade unionists? Give your views on Wed 16 May at 8pm at the Mechanics Institute Princess St. Manchester. Speakers from Labour and Respect will star. more information here

Attend a book launch of Sarah Irving’s biography: Leila Khaled; Icon of Palestinian Liberation. Leila is known for her involvement in the hijack of a passenger jet in 1969. Find out about her activism today, the role of women in the Palestinian movement and the rise of Hamas. Blackwells Bookshop Manchester, 24 May 7-8.30 admission free.

Go to a play…about the lives of working class women.. noticed this on the 24/7 site.
Player’s Angels by Amanda Whittington, directed by Joyce Branagh. Presented by Manchester School of Theatre at the Capitol Theatre, Manchester Metropolitan University, Mabel Tylecote Building, Cavendish Street, Manchester M15 6BG. It’s 1953 and all the girls in Nottingham want to work at John Player’s, the best employer in town. Whilst Cyn dreams of being a beauty queen and Vee adjusts to married life, widowed Glad shares a secret with her young supervisor Bill. When the youthful Mae comes to work at Player’s, however, the lives and secrets of all the women change forever.

Wed 16 – Sat 19 May Further details More information here.

Go for a walk….The Irish in Manchester:Walk 1. Learn about the history of the Irish in Manchester including trade unionists John Doherty and Mary Quaile, the Irish at Peterloo, the Manchester Martyrs and Eva Gore Booth. Meeting point: Oxford Road Station at noon, Saturday 26 May, Fee £6/5. More information here

Stop! Look! Listen! a weekly selection of some of my favourite films/books/people…

Watch…
Happy People (2010) A year in the Taiga by Dmitry Vasyukov. Siberia extends from the Urals to the Pacific and is one and a half times the size of the USA. 38 million people live in this area, but this film concentrates on 300 people who live in the heart of the Siberian wilderness, deep in the taiga and far away from civilization with no telephone, running water or medical support. Written and presented by Werner Herzog the story follows a trapper through the four seasons. It shows a way of life that has continued with little changes for centuries and celebrates its harsh, but beautiful, landscape and…its happy people.

Listen to…
angry people on the Inspiration EP by Easterhouse. Formed in the 1980s by brothers Andy and Ivor Perry together with Mike Murray, Gary Rostock and Peter Vanden,  they were Manchester’s only avowedly Marxist band. Whilst there were plenty of left wing bands in the 80s, few of them mentioned the conflict in Northern Ireland. The first song on the EP Inspiration is about Bobby Sands, one of the 10 men who died on hunger strike in prison in Northern Ireland in 1981, as part of a campaign to gain political status for Irish republican prisoners. Their deaths inspired many people, Irish and non-Irish, to join the campaign for a political solution to Britain’s rule in Ireland. It led to myself, and other second generation Irish people in this country, to open the debate about human rights abuses in Ireland and discrimination against the Irish in this country. Easterhouse had no time for the shortcomings of the Labour Party or the dalliances of the trade union leaders with the establishment. They were angry, highly politicised, and wanted other young people to join a workers’ movement to oppose the State and build a better society. At a time when there are over a million unemployed young people, and each person is chasing four jobs, the question has to be asked…where is the Easterhouse of 2012? As well as this EP, track down their other albums Contenders and Waiting for the Redbird“. You can find some clips of them on Youtube, including this brief interview.

Read...
Tom Paine A Political Life by John Keane(Bloomsbury, 1995) Thomas Paine (1737-1809) is a man for our times. A man of conviction, he wrote rebellious political tracts on citizenship, republicanism and democracy and, most importantly, he wrote them for the person in the street. His publications, Common Sense, The Rights of Man and The Age of Reason inspired political activists in Britain, America and France. Not just a writer and philosopher, he was also a soldier in the American Revolution and nearly died in a prison in France during the Reign of Terror in 1793. John Keane’s book is a fitting tribute to a man whose writings  are still seen as important in debating the relationship between citizen and state.

Visit...
Manchester Town Hall to gaze in wonder at the Ford Maddox Brown murals in the Great Hall. Started in 1879 and completed in 1893, they are a Victorian idealised version of the history of the city. I particularly like the story of William  Crabtree, usually described as a draper (but more likely a merchant), who was asked to observe the Transit of Venus in 1639, and went on to correct the faulty calculations of the scientist, Jeremiah Horrocks, and observe the transit on 4 December. Watch out for Eric Northey’s play on Crabtree The Transit  of  Venus, performed by Cul-de-sac theatre company,  to be premiered in July at Buxton Fringe Festival. (More information from Eric, e.northey@gmail.com).