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EVENTS

We aim to put on a variety of events in the shop, and welcome suggestions from community and radical groups who want to use the shop for evening events. Please contact nik@housmans.com or ring us on 020 7837 4473 if you are interested in organising an event. (click here to see previous events)

"Wednesdays @ Housmans" continue... along with many other events on various days

Since September 2007, Housmans has been hosting weekly book events and talks based around a monthly theme. We hope on any given Wednesday from 7pm onwards you can pop into Housmans and be certain of catching a unique and stimulating evening of discussion and debate, with refreshments provided.

See 2008 monthly themes for a list of the topics to be covered by Housmans in 2008. If you are involved with any of the subjects covered then please feel free to contact us with events suggestions or to hold your own event@Housmans.

JULY EVENTS

Wednesday 2nd July 7pm

BOOK LAUNCH & TALK

The NHS is 60- undervalued, underfunded and undermined, Radical History Network

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the NHS, the Radical History Network (RaHN) has published a booklet which outlines some ideas we have about the health service. In particular we are keen to expose the conspiracy of the Labour government to privatise large parts of it, with a view to establishing a health care market, American style. At present we are seeing the start to the process with the government imposing a health clinic (almost certainly funded and run by the insurance companies) in every area in UK, which doctors are being required to move into. This is the thin end of the wedge – new buildings to be run by US style health management organisations, basically insurance companies.

Of course the UK National Health Service is still to a certain extent “The Envy of the World”. With its provision of medical care, for even the poorest, with no extra payment on delivery, despite the attacks, open and hidden, the NHS is a tribute to the million or so staff who daily work hard to provide services.

However the hard reality is that the NHS is at present undergoing consistent sabotage from within. Cleverly disguised by rather grand schemes like that of Lord Darzi, Gordon Brown and big business are attempting a take- over. This will be a money based system, with private insurance as the entry point. We know from news seeping of the market dominated countries, of people dying on the streets, of the insurance exclusions. The film SiCKO exposes this as a warning we would do well to learn. Unless we stop this scandal, we will soon have a national wealth service.

At this meeting, we are inviting several of the authors who have contributed to the booklet. The writers were Liz Willis, Alan Woodward, Dale Evans, Peter Sartori and Paulette Case Robinson, Lesley Fisher and Terry Burton, Janet Shapiro and Melissa Ronaldson. There is also a short history of the London Health Emergency, and extracts from their 1984 booklet on hospital occupations. Finally the statement from ‘Keep our NHS Public’ presents a critique of the early Darzi document. The book is illustrated with cartoons and concludes by reprinting Bertolt Brecht's worker's address to a doctor. A directory of organisations is included. The book is selective, not comprehensive.

The booklet begins with historical analysis, looks at conflicts and strikes, examines other issues and concludes with the current situation. The primary theme is that the libertarian idea of a locally controlled health service, freed of capitalist and State domination, is the way to secure a service that is responsive to the needs of the population.

There will be a formal book launch at Housmans Bookshop, 5 Caledonian Road, King’s Cross N1, at 7 pm on Wednesday 2 July. This is close to the actual anniversary on the 5th. Please come and bring a friend, refreshments provided.

Thursday 3rd July 7pm

TALK

How local authorities are investing in unscrupulous corporations, hosted by the London Local Authorities Pension Campaign

A talk marking the launch of a new campaign that aims to disclose how local authorities are investing funds from our council taxes and pension schemes into some of the world’s most unscrupulous corporations – often without knowing it.

By collecting data through the Freedom of Information act, and networking with a range of anti-corporate and corporate accountability campaign groups and individuals, a picture has emerged in which local authorities are investing in companies that are raping the environment, profiting from war, and trampling over human rights. The campaign has received support from Corporate Watch, Campaign Against Arms Trade, Islington Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and FairPensions amongst others.

Wednesday 9th July 7pm

BOOK EVENT & TALK

How to Live Off-Grid, by Nick Rosen

The word 'off-grid' refers to places or people without mains water, power or phone line. Off-grid locations can range from private islands to tree-houses; the people living there might be back-packers, international business travellers or hippies; they may move around in buses or yachts, houseboats or 4-wheel drives. All are outside or in between the criss-crossing lines of power, water and phone that delineate the civilised world. Some are trying to save the planet, some live that way because it is all they can afford, some just want the freedom.

Nick Rosen’s book ‘How to Live Off-Grid’ is about that physical sense of off-grid. But it is also about taking the off-grid attitude into your local park or your own back garden. It is part travelogue as Nick Rosen, his wife and baby take off in a camper van to visit off-gridders representing every aspect of living off-grid - on land and water, metaphorical and actual, rural and city. And it is also a guide to avoiding the pitfalls and finding the best solutions for going off-grid yourself.

The Author

Nick Rosen is an award-winning documentary-maker, journalist and media analyst. He has produced and directed documentaries for ITV, Channel 4 (including Brezhnev's Daughter which won Best International Programme: New York Film and TV Festival 1994, and the widely praised documentary for PBS and C4 about the rebuilding of the World Trade Centre in New York) and for BBC Radio 4. In 1995 he founded one of the first UK Web-design companies and he wrote the Durlacher Report, a financial study of the Internet which spawned a generation of Internet investors.

Saturday 12th July, 5pm - 'Dancing in the No-fly Zone: A Woman's Journey Through Iraq' with Hadani Ditmars

Hadani Ditmars’ best selling book ‘Dancing in the No Fly Zone’ (chosen by the Toronto Globe and Mail as one of 100 best and most influential books of 2005) recounts her time in Iraq from 1997 until the autumn of 2003, and is one of the few recent books on Iraq that covers pre- and post-invasion reality. In this evening’s talk Hadani will be exploring the devastating effect that this most recent invasion has had on civil and cultural life, not least in the domination of religion over secular life.

"‘Dancing in the No Fly Zone’ …touches places in the nation’s soul that horror headlines never reach." - Boyd Tonkin, literary critic of the London Independent. See an interview with Hadani at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4n1HRPJUNM

Wednesday 16th July, 7pm - Film screening of 'How Cuba Survived Peak Oil'

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, Cuba's economy went into a tailspin. With imports of oil cut by more than half – and food by 80 percent – people were desperate. This film tells of the hardships and struggles as well as the community and creativity of the Cuban people during this difficult time. Cubans share how they transitioned from a highly mechanized, industrial agricultural system to one using organic methods of farming and local, urban gardens. It is an unusual look into the Cuban culture during this economic crisis, which they call ‘The Special Period.’ The film opens with a short history of Peak Oil, a term for the time in our history when world oil production will reach its all-time peak and begin to decline forever. Cuba, the only country that has faced such a crisis – the massive reduction of fossil fuels – is an example of options and hope.

‘The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil’ is a project of The Community Solution, a non-profit organisation that designs and teaches low-energy solutions to the current unsustainable, fossil fuel-based, industrialised, and centralised way of living.

This screening is hosted by the Cuba Solidarity Campaign, who will be introducing the film and running a question and answer session afterwards.

The film runs at 53 mins, and is exempt from classification.
http://www.powerofcommunity.org
www.cuba-solidarity.org.uk

Saturday 19th July, 5pm - 'Producing Urban Order: Cleaning Up King's Cross' - film and discussion

Inspired by the Foucauldian notion of Society of Control, MA students from the department of Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths College, have created a series of short films and pamphlets exploring King’s Cross as an area of urban transformation. Focusing on the role played by the new terminal of St Pancras International as a catalyst for urban development, their work draws upon an extensive archive of mapping, field work and theoretical engagement.

Through encounters with institutional and informal networks the group produces counter-cartographies, video interviews, visual documentation and a lexicon of key terms as tools to initiate critical debate on the local and global forces shaping the area.
This evening’s event will take the form of screening of three short films with room for discussion and comment throughout.

Wednesday 23rd July, 7pm - Campaign against Climate Change

Campaign against Climate Change – ‘Climate Camp and beyond…’

The Campaign against Climate Change, based upstairs from Housmans at 5 Caledonian Road, has been central in mobilising the population of Britain to stand up against the lack of action being taken by business and government in tackling this potentially catastrophic issue. This evening a range of supporters from this Campaign and from other climate campaign groups will be talking about the forthcoming Climate Camp, and looking forward to the future.

"We need to put climate change right at the top of the political agenda — it is by far the biggest threat to humanity. We have to turn this into the primary political campaign. That means keeping on the streets, keeping up the demonstrations and putting an enormous amount of pressure on our politicians." George Monbiot, Honorary President

http://www.campaigncc.org
http://www.climatecamp.org.uk

Saturday 26th July, 6pm - Newsnight's Paul Mason discusses syndicalism and workers' struggles

We are delighted to welcome Newsnight’s Economics Editor Paul Mason, to talk about his book ‘Live Working or Die Fighting’, in which he compares the struggles of the global working classes of today, with those of the late 1800’s (the first time the working class went global). In this evening’s talk Paul will be focussing on the significance of syndicalism in those early formations of class solidarity.

http://www.liveworkingordiefighting.co.uk

Wednesday 30th July, 7pm - Peter Cox discusses the cultural impact of the Radio Ballads, as explored in his new book 'Set in Song'

Peter Cox's new book ‘Set Into Song - Ewan MacColl, Charles Parker, Peggy Seeger and the Radio Ballads’ tells the story of a remarkable collaboration, one which produced a groundbreaking series of eight hour-long radio programmes for the BBC. The first, The Ballad of John Axon, was originally broadcast on 2 July 1958, and this evenings event will be marking its 50th anniversary.

Uniquely, the programmes took the speech of working people, until then almost always voiced by actors, and allowed them to tell their own stories. They told them into the new 'Midget' mobile tape recorder wherever they lived and worked - in railway yards, on fishing vessels, down pits, on bulldozers, in Traveller encampments. Their stories were woven together by Ewan MacColl with songs that he wrote specially for the programmes, after listening intensely to the language and rhythms of the voices, and by the young Peggy Seeger, who designed the musical setting and directed the performers. The programmes were rehearsed and recorded under the overall direction of the visionary Birmingham radio producer Charles Parker, a pioneer of the new painstaking art of tape splicing.

The radio ballads were hugely influential on what became the folk revival movement, and broke ground in challenging the domination of ‘Queen’s English’ on the BBC. Peter Cox lovingly explores this subject in his new book, and in this evening’s talk he will be playing extracts from the ballads and recounting his research.

http://www.setintosong.co.uk/
Listen to the original radio ballads here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/radioballads/original/index.shtml

AUGUST EVENTS - LATIN AMERICA

Saturday 2nd August - 6pm ' Why Workers are they Key to Tackling Climate Change' - with Paul Hampton

Paul Hampton from the Labour Research Department will be hosting an evening of discussion and debate that places socialism and workers' control at the heart of the battle against environmental destruction.

Wednesday 6th August 7pm - Che in Verse.

Gavin O'Toole from Aflame Books will give an introductory talk on the Aflame books title 'Che in Verse', followed by readings and a discussion.

He was the last armed prophet - and became the first truly global icon of the modern era following his death at the hands of the CIA-backed Bolivian army. Complex and charismatic, Ernesto “Che” Guevara has been immortalised in popular culture as the archetypal, self-sacrificing rebel with a cause. His martyr’s death on 9 October 1967 transformed him into the poster-boy of revolution - but also inspired poets and songwriters the world over to put pen to paper.

To coincide with the 40th anniversary of his execution, Che in Verse reproduces 134 poems and songs from 53 countries about this enigmatic Argentine-Cuban revolutionary. It examines how Che was celebrated or remembered from before his death to the present day, and it explores why Guevara - himself a gun-toting poet - has achieved a level of sanctification comparable to Christ.

Edited by Gavin O’Toole and Georgina Jiménez, Che in Verse is published by Aflame Books. It brings together contributions both published and unpublished by poets and songwriters living and dead - ranging from Che’s fellow revolutionaries and anti-colonial freedom-fighters to two Nobel Prize winners, a gay rights activist, Brazil’s minister of culture, a Cistercian monk, and a Cuban prisoner of conscience languishing in the “Alcatraz of the Rockies”.

Gavin O’Toole is an academic and journalist who conducted research for Che in Verse under the auspices of the Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London, while a Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow. His first two books were Politics Latin America (2007) and the translation of Oswaldo Salazar’s From the Darkness (2007). Georgina Jiménez Reynoso is a Mexican freelance writer and translator. She has translated and written for several British newspapers and writes book and film reviews for the Latin American Review of Books.

Wednesday 13th August 7pm - Colombia Solidarity presents a talk on the violence in Colombia and its roots, tbc.

Wednesday 20th August 7pm - Haiti, Aristide and the Politics of Containment

'Once the most lucrative European colony in the Caribbean, Haiti has long been one of the most divided and impoverished countries in the world. In the late 1980s a remarkable popular mobilization known as Lavalas, or “the flood,” sought to liberate the island from decades of US-backed dictatorial rule. After winning a landslide election victory, in 1991 the Lavalas government led by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was overthrown by a bloody military coup. Damming the Flood analyzes how and why Aristide’s enemies in Haiti, the US and France made sure that his second government, elected with another overwhelming majority in 2000, was toppled by a further coup in 2004.

The elaborate international campaign to contain, discredit and then overthrow Lavalas at the start of the twenty-first century was perhaps the most successful act of imperial sabotage since the end of the Cold War. Its execution and its impact have much to teach anyone interested in the development of today's political struggles in Latin America and the rest of the post-colonial world.' - Promotional copy from Verso Books, see: http://www.versobooks.com/books/ghij/h-titles/hallward_p_haiti.shtml

Saturday 23rd August 5pm - Film Screening 'Territorio Pacificado'.

'On February 21, 2005, Colombian army units attacked two hamlets in the San Jose community in north-western Colombia. The soldiers brutally killed six people including two children and a baby. Those murdered were members of the peace community San Jose de Apartado. In 1997 the farmers had decided to declare neutrality and refrain from cooperation with any of the armed groups in the war-torn Uraba region - be it the state, paramilitaries, or the guerrilla. After decades of displacement the community hoped that neutrality would allow them to stay on their land.

In the face of continuing attacks, the people hold on to their project which they call 'el proceso'. 'El proceso' stands for the search for political alternatives in a conflict profiting few and victimizing many.' - cover text.

Wednesday 27th August 7pm - Film screening.