Stuart Hood – Centenary Day Conference

Stuart Hood

STUART HOOD (1915-2011)

CENTENARY DAY CONFERENCE

Open University in London and the South-East

1-11 Hawley Crescent

London NW1 8NP

(Near Camden Town tube on the Northern Line)

Saturday November 28

10.30 a.m. – 5.30 p.m.

We hope to provide coffee and tea and there will be a social space for discussion over lunch (not provided). There are takeway catering facilities nearby.

There is no conference fee.  But please register your attendance with Hilary Horrocks at: hilaryhorrocks@btinternet.com as the venue has a limited capacity.

*

Stuart Hood, born in small-town NE Scotland in 1915, volunteered for army service in 1940 and was captured in the North African desert while stationed in Cairo with British Intelligence. He was released from an Italian prisoner of war camp at the time of the Armistice in September 1943 and, during an almost-year-long journey to meet the Allied advance, fought with Tuscan partisans, participating in the now semi-mythologised Battle of Valibona (January 1944). His memoir Pebbles from My Skull (1963), often republished, mainly as Carlino, is a classic reflection on his time in war-torn Italy. He worked for 17 years at the BBC, resigning in frustration from the position of Controller of Programmes, Television, in 1963, having been responsible for programmes such as Z-Cars and That Was the Week That Was. He made important documentaries including The Trial of [Soviet dissidents] Daniel and Sinyavsky; and was briefly Professor of Media Studies at the Royal College until asked to resign following his support for student protests. He latterly taught at the University of Sussex. He was a distinguished translator, particularly from German (including the poems of his great friend, Erich Fried) and Italian (including work by Dario Fo and Pier Paolo Pasolini). Returning to an earlier career as a fiction writer, he published a series of novels – A Storm from Paradise (1985), The Upper Hand (1987), The Brutal Heart (1989), A Den of Foxes (1991), and The Book of Judith (1995) – which draw on his Scottish childhood, his wartime experiences and his encounters with, amongst others, members of the Baader-Meinhof group. He joined the Communist Party as a student in Edinburgh but after the war was an anti-Stalinist socialist and briefly, in the 1970s, a member of the Workers Revolutionary Party. Influenced by the class-conscious trade unionists he had met in his university days, he was, also in the 1970s, an active Vice-President of the film and TV technicians’ union, ACTT.

Provisional conference programme follows …

 

PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME (subject to amendment)

10.30 Arrival and Registration

10.45 Welcome, Terry Brotherstone and David Johnson

 

10.50-11.50 Session One

10.50 Showing of extracts from Stuart Hood’s documentary return to his childhood home, A View from Caterthun, with commentary by filmmakers Don Coutts and Christeen Winford.

11.20 Hilary Horrocks (freelance editor and independent researcher), ‘Stuart Hood, Partigiano – finding traces today in Emilio-Romagna and Tuscany’.

 

11.55-12.45 Session Two

11.55 Phil Cooke (University of Strathclyde), ‘The Italian Resistance: recent work on the historical context of Carlino’.

12.20 Karla Benske (Glasgow Caledonian University), ‘Showcasing the “compexity of human reactions”: an appreciation of Stuart Hood’s novels’.

 

12.45 Lunch

 

2.00-3.15 Session Three

2.00 Robert Lumley (University College, London), ‘Keeping Faith: revisiting interviews with Stuart Hood’.

2.25 Brian Winston (University of Lincoln) and Tony Garnett (film and TV director and producer), ‘Stuart Hood and the Media’.

3.15-3.30 Break

 

3.30-4.45 Session Four

3.30 David Johnson (Open University), ‘Stuart Hood, Scottish Literature and Scottish Nationalism’.

3.55 Haim Bresheeth (London School of Economics), ‘Working with Stuart on the Holocaust’.

4.20 Terry Brotherstone (University of Aberdeen) will lead a discussion on Stuart Hood’s politics, including his involvement in the 1970s with the Workers Revolutionary Party.

 

4.45-5.30 Session Five

4.45 Final reflections and future proposals.

5.15 Close.

5.30 Social gathering nearby.

 

First Published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/stuart-hood-1915-2011-centenary-day-conference-28-november

 

***END***

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Before ’68

1968

BEFORE ‘68

Conference—”Before ’68: The Left, activism & social movements in the long 1960s”

Conference Dates: 13 and 14 February 2016

Venue: School of History, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK and hosted by UEA School of History in conjunction with the journal Socialist History and the Institute of Working Class History (Chicago).

The events of 1968, particularly those in France, have achieved a mythical status in both the memory and the historiography of the 1960s. For some, 1968 marked the end-point of a realignment of the European ‘New Left’. For others 1968 represented a student generation in revolt, and many of the first accounts which sought to explain the history and meaning of ’68 were written by that generation.

More recently historians have tried to demythologise ’68, looking both at less ‘glamourous’ locales and at the deeper histories of anti-colonial struggles and worker activism prior to the events of that year. The aim of this conference is to explore the diverse histories of social activism and left politics in Britain and elsewhere, and how they prepared the ground for and fed into ‘1968’.

Themes might include, but are not limited to:

• Anti-nuclear & peace movements
  Civil Rights struggles
  The Black Power movement
  Anti-colonial politics
  The activities of the Labour movement and the ‘traditional’ Left
  The grassroots activism of the ‘New Left’
  Far Left challenges: Trotskyism & Maoism
  Campaigns around housing and the built environment
  Campaigns around race and discrimination in the workplace and housing
  Solidarity movements with struggles abroad (e.g. South Africa, Vietnam)
  Campaigns for Homosexual Equality
  Second Wave Feminism

We are seeking papers of 5,000 to 10,000 words on any aspects of left activism and social movements in the period preceding 1968 to be presented at the conference. Selected papers will be published in a special issue of the journal Socialist History. Attendance at the conference will be free of charge, but we ask that anyone wishing to attend registers in advance.

Proposals for papers and any enquiries should be submitted to Ben Jones.

Email: b.jones5@uea.ac.uk

Deadline for proposals for papers: 31 October 2015

First Published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/call-for-papers-before-9268-the-left-activism-social-movements-in-the-long-1960s-1

 

***END***

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War Crimes, Atrocity and Justice

University for Strategic Optimism

WAR CRIMES, ATROCITY AND JUSTICE

 

War Crimes, Atrocity and Justice

Polity, November 2014
By: Michael J. Shapiro

What do we know about war crimes and justice? What are the discursive practices through which the dominant images of war crimes, atrocity and justice are understood?

In this wide ranging text, Michael J. Shapiro contrasts the justice-related imagery of the war crimes trial (for example the solitary, headphone-wearing defendant at the Hague listening with intent to a catalogue of charges) with literary justice: representations in literature, film, and biographical testimony, raising questions about atrocities and justice that juridical proceedings exclude.

By engaging with the ambiguities exposed by the artistic and experiential genres, reading them alongside policy and archival documentation and critical theoretical discourses, Shapiro’s War Crimes, Atrocity, and Justice challenges traditional notions of responsibility in juridical settings. His comparative readings instead encourage a focus on the conditions of possibility for war crimes as they arise from the actions of states, non-state agencies and individuals involved in arms trading, peace keeping, sex trafficking, and law enforcement and adjudication.

Theory springs to life as Shapiro draws on examples from legal discourse, literature, media, film, and television, to build a nuanced picture of politics and the problem of justice. It will be of great interest to students of film and media, literature, cultural studies, contemporary philosophy and political science.

http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0745671543.html

**END**

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The Darkest Days: The Truth Behind Britain’s Rush to War, 1914

Books

THE DARKEST DAYS: THE TRUTH BEHIND BRITAIN’S RUSH TO WAR, 1914

By DOUGLAS NEWTON

“A compellingly written, tightly argued, deeply researched and bracingly revisionist study.”– Christopher Clark, author of The Sleepwalkers

“If you want to understand how a Liberal cabinet decided to take Britain to war two days before the German invasion of Belgium, over the protests of a considerable peace movement, read Douglas Newton’s eloquent The Darkest Days: The Truth Behind Britain’s Rush to War, 1914.” – The Independent

————

BOOK DISCUSSION 

AUGUST 4th event: On the centenary of Britain’s declaration of war, Douglas Newton Christopher Clark discuss THE DARKEST DAYS at the London Review Bookshop

As the world commemorates the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War historian Douglas Newton recounts the hidden history of Britain’s decision to enter the conflict. Drawing on a wealth of archival material, including the private papers and correspondence of leading politicians of the time, Newton pays particular attention to the widespread and vehement opposition to the war, both inside parliament and in the country at large, and reveals how Asquith, Edward Grey and Winston Churchill colluded, against the wishes and instincts of many of their parliamentary colleagues, to bring the country into the war, by any means necessary. Douglas Newton will be in conversation with Christopher Clark, author of The Sleepwalkers, one of the most lucid recent accounts of the outbreak of the First World War.

7pm / £10 – for more information and to book tickets: http://www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/events/2014/8/the-darkest-days-douglas-newton-and-christopher-clark

————

THE DARKEST DAYS shows how the war-hungry leaders and the right-wing press hustled the nation into war, making only the barest efforts to save the peace. As a result the declaration was the result of political negotiation, dishonesty and willful belligerence that split the cabinet and kept the opposition and the nation itself in the dark until it was too late.

Through a forensic study of the personal papers of many of the key figures on both sides of the debate, historian DOUGLAS NEWTON pieces together what really went on in the frenetic weeks between the assassination in Sarajevo and Britain’s declaration of war upon Germany on Tuesday 4 August 1914.

Many recently published histories of Britain’s Great War embrace the conflict as a good war—irresistible, righteous—and popular. It has become almost heretical to offer criticism of Britain’s intervention. This book presents a new critical examination of the government’s choice for war, and weaves into the story an account of those “radicals” and other activists who urged neutral diplomacy in 1914.

http://www.versobooks.com/books/1591-the-darkest-days

———–

DOUGLAS NEWTON was the Associate Professor of History at University of Western Sydney. He is the author of British Policy and the Weimar Republic 1918–19; Germany 1918-1945: From Days of Hope to Years of Horror; and British Labour, European Socialism and the Struggle for Peace 1889–1914. He lives in Australia.

————-

“Should Britain have entered the war in 1914? This question has recently aroused controversy. As Douglas Newton shows, it was controversial in 1914, too. This book is a compellingly written, tightly argued, deeply researched and bracingly revisionist study of the decisions that led to British intervention. Newton uproots many hardy myths and reveals the deep divisions within the political elite of a country on the brink of war.”
– Christopher Clark, author of The Sleepwalkers

“Sound and informative.”
– Keith Robbins in praise of British Labour, European Socialism and the Struggle for Peace 1889-1914, Times Literary Supplement

“Newton writes well, and with a feel for the tragedy of the Great War missing in most accounts … the scholarship invested in this work is meticulous.”
– John McDermott, in praise of British Policy and the Weimar Republic 1918-1919, International History Review

“Newton’s history is meticulously researched …”
– Jill Liddington in praise of British Labour, European Socialism and the Struggle for Peace 1889-1914, History Workshop Journal

————

HARDBACK: JUNE 2014 / 416 pages / ISBN: 9781781683507 / $34.95 / £20 / $41 (Canada)

ALSO AVAILABLE AS AN E-BOOK

THE DARKEST DAYS is available at a 30% discount (hardback) on our website, with free shipping and bundled ebook. Purchasing details here: http://www.versobooks.com/books/1591-the-darkest-days

 

First published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/new-book-and-london-event-douglas-newton2019s-the-darkest-days-the-truth-behind-britain2019s-rush-to-war-1914

 

**END**

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Online Publications at The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

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The SOAS Palestine Studies Series: Call for Manuscripts

Education Crisis

THE SOAS PALESTINE STUDIES SERIES – CALL FOR MANUSCRIPTS

WITH I.B.TAURIS PUBLISHERS, LONDON

The SOAS Centre for Palestine Studies (CPS) at the London Middle East Institute (LMEI) has announced the launch of the first, and presently the only, university series in Palestine Studies in the English language. The SOAS Palestine Studies Series will be edited by the CPS and published by I.B. Tauris, the well-known London-based publishing house specialising in Middle East Studies.

The aim is to publish three to five books per year. Manuscripts will be peer-reviewed and selected for publication by the CPS and under its editorial responsibility. Selected authors will get a contract with details on copy-editing and royalties from I.B. Tauris.

The SOAS Palestine Studies Series is open to submissions by academics at various levels of their career, from writings by recognised scholars to monographs derived from PhD theses adapted for publication. Submissions from all countries and from various disciplines are welcome as long as they fall plainly within the category of Palestine Studies. The aim is to publish the first books in the new series in the autumn of 2015. Only manuscripts at an advanced stage of writing and post-examination theses provided along with the examiners’ reports will be considered.

Submissions should be sent in electronic format to Louise Hosking at LMEI (LH2@soas.ac.uk). For enquiries, you may also contact her on +44-20 7898 4330.

First Published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/call-for-manuscripts-the-soas-palestine-studies-series

 

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a song by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Revolt

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Online Publications at The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

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Historical Materialism Sydney Conference 2014

Communisation

HISTORICAL MATERIALISM SYDNEY CONFERENCE 2014

CALL FOR PAPERS

STATES, SOCIAL REPRODUCTION, CAPITAL

We call this conference in a historical moment marked, at the level of public discourse, above all by uncertainty in the face of a continuing crisis of both capitalist production and the ideological, political and social forms that have hitherto underpinned it. This uncertainty is expressed, implicitly or explicitly, not just by the managers, functionaries and prognosticators of capital and state, but also by those movements that claim to systemically oppose it.  Additionally, our conference coincides with the centennial of the outbreak of World War I.

Eulogies to bravery aside, this conjuncture – of present distemper and historical disaster – allows us to ask again, and hopefully ask differently, many of the questions considered central to the broad Marxist tradition. The Great War, for many in that tradition, marked the spectacular limit point or exhaustion of a particular configuration of capital accumulation, the result of which – as figures as preeminent as Engels had prophesied – could only be bloody. To what extent do we face a similar limit point today, even if we have thus far been spared the scale of sacrificial slaughter of that previous one?

This question cannot be answered by scholars and activists operating in isolation; instead, it requires sustained theoretical and practical activity across virtually the entire field of Marxist research and practice: the critique of political economy opening out to critiques of the state; examinations of the relationship between the state, capital, and the social movements that contest both; investigations into the specificity of class and its relation to other structural forms of oppression; considerations of the nature and form that a communist revolution will take today (1914 marking too, of course, the failure of one such conception); interrogations of the relevance of imperialism and settler colonialism to the current conjuncture; and critical analyses of the production of nature on a world-scale. To answer or even just correctly pose these questions requires an engagement with Marxism’s multifarious inheritances, but will also imply openness to new data, integration with the experience of new social struggles, and fresh theoretical perspectives informed by these.

We ask for submissions of 250 word abstracts for papers on these and other topics that engage with this broader tradition, critically or otherwise; panel proposals should include short abstracts for each paper coupled with an outline of the panel as a whole. We especially welcome contributions from activists and scholars outside of (or peripheral to) the academy.

 

All submissions should be emailed to hmaustralasia [at] gmail.com.

Website: https://hmaustralasia.org/2014/04/15/historical-materialism-australasia-2014-states-social-reproduction-capital/

 

**END**

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How Capitalism Survives: Historical Materialism London Conference 2014

World Crisis

HOW CAPITALISM SURVIVES: HISTORICAL MATERIALISM LONDON CONFERENCE 2014

How Capitalism Survives
Eleventh Annual Historical Materialism London Conference
6-9 November 2014
Vernon Square, Central London*

This year marks the first of a series of centennial commemorations and anniversaries, starting with that of the first worldwide inter-imperialist conflict. Centuries of colonialism and imperialism served as a preparatory phase for the catastrophe. Indeed, while the main parties of the Second International trampled the revolutionary socialist tradition in trench-mud, the First World War destroyed the illusion that imperialist violence could be wreaked on the colonies while leaving Europe untouched. If capital came into the world ‘dripping from head to toe, from every pore, with blood and dirt’, Marx’s analysis of ‘primitive accumulation’ has certainly not been confined to a pre-history of capital.

And yet, contrary to all expectations, despite these tremors and shocks, despite the terrifying glances into the abyss of destruction, capitalism has survived. Not only has capital muddled through; it has mutated, adapted and, by some criteria, emerged stronger than before. At the same time, however, new contradictions and crises have appeared, expanding the spaces of critique to the ecological and the ideological terrains and opening up new possibilities of revolutionary breakthrough.

In recent years, the crisis and the movements emerging in response have re-opened an opportunity to envision, and fight for, substantive alternatives. But these movements have remained fragmented and have faced increasing state repression and imperialist aggression. And the on-going crisis is now raising the stakes. It is clear that this crisis is indeed global, leading to deepening austerity in the North and undermining the conditions for sustained growth in the South. If, in the North, the ‘war on terror’ manifests itself in intensified state racism and Islamophobia, the crisis is also intensifying and bringing to the surface underlying international rivalries. The winds of war from the South are reaching Europe once again. But from the South, movements worldwide also bear witness to countless examples of struggle and resistance.

At this year’s conference, we want to explore capital’s capacity to survive in order to explore, first and foremost, how it can be overcome. We are interested in investigating contemporary geographical reconfigurations of accumulation and interrogating theories of imperialism, hegemonic succession, and capital’s tendencies towards increasing inter-state rivalries. On the other hand, we want to delve into theories and practices of class struggles, social movements and resistance which create possible alternatives to neoliberalism, crisis and war by constantly challenging the smooth reproduction of capitalism in its gendered, social, economic, political, racial, ecological, cultural and ideological dimensions. In doing so, we also want to enrich our understanding of a Marxian analysis of ‘core’ and ‘periphery’ with an analysis of current developments of Marxism in the South in general and in the BRICS economies in particular. We also hope to continue the theme on Race and Capital inaugurated last year.

We welcome abstract proposals of 200 words on these themes or any others, in all disciplines, from all continents and from all perspectives within Marxism. The deadline for proposals is 15th May 2014.

Please register your abstracts here: http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/conferences/annual11/submit

Separate calls go out for the following streams: Marxism and Feminism, and Ecology and Climate Change.

* Please note that this year the conference will not be taking place at the main SOAS buildings at Thornhaugh Square.

International Conference on Critical Education

 

 

 

 

**END**

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 Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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‘Real World War One’ Freeschool

Imperialism

‘REAL WORLD WAR ONE’ FREESCHOOL

Sunday 18 May

11.30am-5.30pm at No.88 Fleet Street, EC4 1DH (Blackfriars tube)

 

Sessions on:

WW1’s relevance today and why capitalism needs war

Mutinies, women’s protests and revolutions

Countering Cameron’s WW1 commemorations

Putin, Ukraine and war today?

 

Please check this website in May for confirmation of the final programme: therealww1.wordpress.com

 

**END**

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Brighton NUT Conference: How Should We Remember and Teach About the War?

Welfare State

BRIGHTON NUT CONFERENCE: HOW SHOULD WE REMEMBER AND TEACH ABOUT THE WAR?

Brighton National Union of Teachers

Speakers:

Seamus Milne (Guardian),

Lindsey German (Stop the War),

Andy Stone (Defend School History).

 

 

Sunday 20th April, 8pm, Mercure, Kings Road, Brighton

See: http://noglory.org/index.php/10-no-glory-in-war-events?start=6

 

**END**

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ICCE IV

Historical Materialism Toronto Conference – Registration

Crisis

HISTORICAL MATERIALISM TORONTO CONFERENCE – REGISTRATION

Confronting Crisis: Left Praxis in the Face of Austerity, War and Revolution
Historical Materialism Conference
York University, Toronto, Canada
May 8 – 11th, 2014
Registration Now Open

http://hmtoronto.org

Confronted with a global context of austerity, exploitation, imperialist aggression, ongoing colonialism, and ecological crises, the world has been witness to growing social and political struggles over the past decade. A wide range of rural- and urban-based labour and social movements have fought back against the current ‘Age of Austerity,’ while new modes and geographies of resistance against dispossession and tyranny continue to inspire social change in the Global South. Against this backdrop, the 2014 Historical Materialism conference at Toronto’s York University will aim to contribute to a collective discussion on how to extend and revitalize Left critique and praxis in the current conjuncture.

Confirmed speakers for the conference include:

Haroon Akram-Lodhi, Farshad Araghi, David Austin, Himani Bannerji, Tithi Bhattacharya, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Peter Kulchyski, Jason Moore, Richard Seymour, Panagiotis Sotiris, Lise Vogel, and Judith Whitehead.

First published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/hm-toronto-8-11-may-2014-registration-now-open

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a song by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

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Anatomy of Failure

The Dodo

ANATOMY OF FAILURE

The Unit for Global Justice, Goldsmiths, and the Collège International de Philosophie, Paris invite you to a book discussion on:

Oliver Feltham’s Anatomy of Failure: Philosophy and Political Action (Bloomsbury, 2013)

Modern liberalism begins in the forgetting of the English Revolution. Anatomy of Failure seeks to right that wrong by exploring the concept of political action, playing its history against its philosophy. The 1640s are a period of institutional failure and political disaster: the country plunges into civil war, every agent is naked. Established procedures are thrown aside and the very grounds for action are fiercely debated and recast.

Five queries emerge in the experience of the New Model Army, five queries that outline an anatomy of failure, isolating the points at which actors disagree, conflict flares up, and alliances dissolve: Who can act? On what grounds? Who is right about what is to be done? Why do we succeed or fail? If you and I split, were we ever united, and to what end? The application of these questions to the Leveller-agitator writings, and then to Thomas Hobbes and John Locke’s philosophies, generates models of political action. No mere philosophical abstractions, the Hobbesian and Lockean models of sovereign and contractual  action have dominated the very practice of politics for centuries. Today it is time to recuperate the Leveller-agitator model of joint action, a model unique in its adequacy to the threat of failure and in its vocation for building the common-wealth. 

 

Discussants

Filippo Del Lucchese, Brunel University, London

Peter D. Thomas, Brunel University, London

Alberto Toscano, Goldsmiths College, London

Respondent

Oliver Feltham, American University of Paris

 

Saturday 22 February 2014

4:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Ben Pimlott Building Lecture Theatre

Goldsmiths, University of London

New Cross, London SE14 6NW

 

The event is supported by:

Collège International de Philosophie, Paris

Unit for Global Justice, Goldsmiths College, London

 

Contact: filippo.dellucchese@ brunel.ac.uk or a.toscano@gold.ac.uk

www.ciph.org

http://www.gold.ac.uk/just- change/

 

**END**

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Critique Conference 2014: Imperialism and War

Imperialism

CRITIQUE CONFERENCE 2014: IMPERIALISM AND WAR

11 & 12 April 2014

Thai Theatre, New Academic Building,

London School of Economics, WC2A 3LJ

To mark the 100th anniversary of the First World War, Critique is looking for conference papers around the topic of imperialism and war

We propose including the whole gamut of causes and consequences, given the extra-ordinary nature of the First World War, its mindless cruelty and destructiveness, on the one hand, but the fantastic explosion of working class revolution throughout Europe on the other. The ruling class was bent on compelling its citizens to fight to the last man, for a cause which disappeared into the mist. Imperialism, which most see as a crucial underlying cause of the war, continues down to the present and conceptions of imperialism, even as applicable to the War of 1914-18, have been developed and discussed.

Confirmed speakers include: Bob Brenner, Mick Cox and Hillel Ticktin

More information: http://www.critiquejournal.net

To propose a paper, contact: gkfa02@udcf.gla.ac.uk

 

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‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

The New Left Book Club: https://rikowski.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/the-new-left-book-club-call-for-papers/