Levellers Association

Call for sponsors of a Levellers Association

We are currently organising the launch of a Levellers Association which would aim to popularise the history and heritage of the Levellers and other radicals in the English Revolution.

It would seek to involve students, researchers and academics with amateur historians, 17th century re-enactors, publishers, artists, battlefield preservation societies, trade unionists, and campaigners who want to deepen our knowledge of the English Revolution. The project is at an early stage but current sponsors include:

Tony Benn,
Jeremy Corbyn MP,
Geoffrey Robertson QC, author of The Tyrannicide Brief
Jim Holstun, author of Ehud’s Dagger
Ann Hughes, Professor of Early Modern History at Keele University
Neil Faulkner, editor of Military Times
Andrew Murray, Director of Communications for Unite the Union
Dr John Gurney, Visiting Fellow Newcastle University
Caryl Churchill, playwright
Rev. Hammer, songwriter
Dr Rachel Foxley, University of Reading
Philip Baker, Senior Research Officer at the Centre for Metropolitan History
Dr Ariel Hessayon, Goldsmiths, University of London
Mike Simons
John Westmoreland, Head of History, York College
Jane Shallice
Lindsey German, national convenor, Stop the War Coalition
Dr Geoff Kennedy, University of Ulster
Marcus Rediker, University of Pittsburgh, co-author (with Peter Linebaugh), The Many-Headed Hydra
Joel Kovel, Editor in Chief, Capitalism Nature Socialism
Dr Pete Woodcock, University of Huddersfield
Norah Carlin, author of The Causes of the English Revolution
The Socialist History Society
Dominic Alexander, books editor, Counterfire magazine
Rowan Wilson, Sales and Marketing Director, Verso Books
Clare Solomon, President-elect, University of London Union
Seumas Milne, Guardian columnist
Syd Fogarty
Jon France, Nottingham University
Matthew Caygill, Leeds Metropolitan University
Dr Keith Flett, London Socialist Historians Group
Andrew Milner, Monash University, author of John Milton and the English Revolution
Kate Connolly, University of Paris

This letter is being circulated on history, academic, trade union and activists lists in the hope of widening he sponsorship base of the project. Please do let us know if you would like to become a sponsor of the Levellers Association.

We are aiming to hold an initial organising meeting on Saturday 22nd May, at 1pm in Room B104, the School of Oriental and African Studies Thornhaugh Street, London WC1H 0XG (nearest tube Russell Square). If you would like to attend or if you have any ideas that you would like discussed at the meeting please do let us know.

Please respond to this email address: info@theleveller.org.uk

We hope that people can help us establish a website, newsletter, conferences, education packs, publications, artistic events and so on…but there is absolutely no obligation on individual sponsors to do any of this.

Thanks for taking the time to look at this.

Best wishes,

John Rees, Goldsmiths College
Ben Craggs, Goldsmiths College
Tehmeena Bax, Queen Mary College

Spalpeens, Gombeens, Squireens

Spalpeens, Gombeens, Squireens: Class Relations in Nineteenth Century Ireland.

A one day interdisciplinary conference aiming to bring together researchers whose work offers an insight into the lives of ordinary people in nineteenth century Ireland. The particular focus is on class as those lives were bound up with production, domination, exploitation and conflict.

Given the relatively sparsely documented nature of this topic and the consequent challenges to research, employing the different approaches represented by different disciplines can be of great utility in giving us a fuller picture. In addition political/elite history is still the predominate focus of research on the Irish past, but a comprehensive understanding is only possible with a commensurate orientation towards the mass of the population. It is intended that the conference will attract the participation of people from different fields including post-medieval archaeology, historical geography, historical sociology, social history, and economic history (and others are welcome).

We are particularly interested in involving postgraduate students and early career scholars.

The conference will take place in N.U.I. Maynooth on Saturday the 31st of July 2010.

Persons interested in presenting should contact the conference organising committee

Eoin O’Flaherty and Terry Dunne at classconferencenuim@gmail.com with the following:

• Working title of paper.

• An abstract of no more than 250 words.

• Contact details: telephone number, e-mail address, institutional affiliation.

• Audio-visual requirements (overhead projector, DVD, VCR etc.).

Deadline for submission of abstracts: Monday 21st of June 2010.

There may be a nominal registration fee (e.g. approx. €20) – further details to be confirmed, we would appreciate it if people planning on attending but not presenting also notify us by Monday the 21st of June at classconferencenuim@gmail.com

Tony Benn on the Movement for Colonial Freedom

Institute of Commonwealth Studies
Serving the Next Generation – The Commonwealth in the 21st Century

The Movement for Colonial Freedom
Rt Hon Tony Benn

Wednesday 9th June 2010

Lecture to start promptly at 5.30pm and to be followed by a wine reception

Beveridge Hall, South Block, Senate House
Malet Street, University of London
London WC1E 7HU

Founded by the Labour MP Fenner Brockway in 1954, the Movement for Colonial Freedom was one of Britain’s most prominent anti-colonial pressure groups in the 1950s and ‘60s. The Movement championed the cause of nationalist movements around the world and worked to expose human rights abuses perpetrated in the counterinsurgency campaigns that preceded the end of colonial rule. It was also a fierce critic of the racist policies of Rhodesia and South Africa. As the Movement’s Treasurer, Tony Benn, witnessed these struggles at first hand. His lecture promises to provide unique insights into this fascinating chapter in the history of decolonization and to offer important lessons for today’s campaigners against racism and oppression.

RSVP to Troy Rutt (troy.rutt@sas.ac.uk or 020 7862 8853)
http://www.commonwealth.sas.ac.uk