This week: Labour history in Australia 1900s-1920s; Dare to Dream; reading the Cassini Division; anarkafem night; and spanish classes
Monday:
Labour History: The IWW and Trades Hall Reds
The Industrial Workers of the World and Trades Hall Reds. The ALP and the One Big Union movement. Recomposing labour as red or rat. Mass labour. NSW Railway Strike.
Discussion starts at 7pm, entry is free, refreshments available by donation.
https://blackrosenewtown.wordpress.com/2015/08/22/australian-labour-history-composition-decomposition-recomposition/.
Screening starts at 7pm, entry is free, refreshments available by donation.
The film tries to tell two stories. First, the history of anarchism in the UK (not just England, despite the title) and beyond, and this it does successfully with a wealth of good period footage that goes back over 100 years. Second, it looks at the state of the movement in the year it was made, 1990. This was the tumultuous period when the poll tax uprising led to to insurrection across the country – notably the famous riot in Trafalgar Square – and eventually the downfall of Thatcher in November of that year.
Also examined are certain currents within anarchism, such as animal rights, feminism, squatting/social centres and music, with a good punk soundtrack as well as some more surprising choices. The cultural side of anarchism isn’t neglected either with poetry and an interview with the artist, Clifford Harper. He is one of several heavyweight talking heads featured, along with Albert Meltzer, Vernon Richards, Nicholas Walter and Philip Sansom, all of whom are no longer with us.
Wednesday:
Socialistic Sci-fi: the Cassini Division
A reading group exploring left wing science fiction. This month we are reading ‘the Cassini Division’ by Ken McLeod. Discussion starts at 7pm, entry is free, refreshments available by donation.
“Ellen May Ngewthu is a soldier and leader of the Cassini Division, the elite defense force of the utopian Solar Union. Here in the twenty-fourth century, the forts of the Division, in orbit around Jupiter, are the front line in humanity’s long standoff with the unknowable post-humans godlike beings descended from the men and women who transformed themselves with high technology centuries ago.
The post-humans’ capacities are unknown . . . but we know they disintegrated Ganymede, we know they punched a wormhole into Jovian space, and we know that the very surface of the solar system’s largest planet has been altered by them. Worse, we know that they have been bombarding the inner solar system with powerful data viruses for generations.
Now Ellen has a plan to rid humanity of this threat once and for all. But she needs to convince others to mistrust the post-humans as much as she does. In the process, much will be revealed–about history, about power, and about what it is to be human.”
Thursday
Saturday:
Come and share what you know, your ideas to make it fun, your questions, thoughts, bring a friend, feel free to suggest topics in advance.
Every Saturday starting 17.30 until we get tired (i.e. 19.00 app).
blackrosenewtown.wordpress.com 
