Spirit of Revolt And Free Events In Glasgow.

        Spirit of Revolt prides itself in being the largest archive in Scotland of anarchist and libertarian-socialist artifacts, memorabilia,documents, etc. We record and preserve the struggles of the ordinary people's battles outside the party political and trade union circle, mainly from the Glasgow/Clydeside area. Though the contents cover a much wider area. Our aim is to make this often hidden history, easily accessible to the public at large. We work hard through a band of dedicated volunteers to get as much of this material up on line for easy access so that you don't have to visit a particular building. What is not yet on line you can access at the Mitchell Library through Spirit of Revolt.

      Two up and coming FREE events from Spirit of Revolt are:

    First: Spirit of Revolt - Show case, in conjunction with Govanhill International Festival and Carnival, Saturday August 10th. 11:00am-15:00pm. 21 Nithsdale Street Glasgow G41 2PZ. 

details: https://www.facebook.com/events/1920330724735435/

     Second: Spirit of Revolt regular Show and Tell, this one will be on that great series of Glasgow events known as "Workers "City", Monday September 16th. 12noon-2:00pm. held in the Blythswood room on the 5th. floor of the Mitchell Library

 

       All this requires money to sustain and grow this important archive. To this end we put on outreach events, exhibitions and pop-up displays when ever possible. This is never quite enough  to guarantee our financial security. We are extremely grateful to the small band of friends and associates who have signed direct debits, this gives us a guaranteed amount to work with each month. I should add that we are not attached to, nor receive any funding from, any political party or trade union.

     We are asking all those who are interested in preserving these struggles of the ordinary people, to look at our website, https://spiritofrevolt.info and who think we are doing a decent job to that end, to see  their way to donating a one of, or monthly direct debit of say the price of a couple of coffees. This would make a tremendous difference to the sustaining and ongoing building of this hidden history.

     To make our appeal a wee bit more alluring we will be offering a free CD and booklet, "Writers for Miners" post free with every direct debit.

      

Details of the CD and booklet:

The “Writers for Miners” Events, 1984

        In 1984-85 events known as “Writers for Miners” took place on consecutive Saturdays in Glasgow’s 3rd Eye Centre to raise funds for striking coal miners at local pits in one of the most significant industrial disputes in world history.

With 140,000 out on strike the Thatcher Government planned to break the power of the NUM union, the most well organised group of workers in the country. With 11,291 arrests and lasting 1 year it unleashed massive state repression, brutality and violence. The other unions largely did not show solidarity and the strike failed, opening the door to the destruction of working class communities, job insecurity and privatisation.

        Performers, poets, visual artists and others decided to support the striking miners in Scotland and formed artists-in-Solidarity which organised fundraising for the miners’ families by holding events. This CD is a recording of those events. James Kelman explains, “Radical history is marginalised by the State and events of this nature should be recorded otherwise they are forgotten. The STUC offered to part-fund the project but on this occasion failed to come up with the money. We still went ahead. It was hoped that a selection of songs, poetry and prose-readings might be produced eventually in the form of a couple of albums (all proceeds to the miners’ strike fund). It didn’t happen, for one reason or another…The original project was launched in support of the miners and their families. Those days may have gone but solidarity and comradeship haven’t. All proceeds from the sale of the Writers for Miners album will go toward the Spirit of Revolt (S.O.R.) Archive, in appreciation of the crucial work carried out by the S.O.R. volunteers in the preservation of radical history”.

      In 1984, those involved were,

Norman McCaig, Freddy Anderson, Hamish Henderson, Duncan Maclean,

Kathleen Jamie and Robert Alan Jamieson, Donald Saunders, Peter Nardini,

Rab Noakes, Nancy Nicolson, Alasdair Gray, Jeff Torrington, Agnes Owens,

Carl MacDougall, James Kelman, Archie Hind, Donald Saunders, Tom

Leonard, Edwin Morgan, Edward Boyd, Danny Kyle, Tom McGrath, Jeff

Torrington, Agnes Owens, Archie Hind.

       There are 20 tracks on the CD, Where will you get such a fabulous collection of performers on one CD?

      You can contact us at our donate page, https://spiritofrevolt.info/donate/ or contact us at   info@spiritofrevolt.info Set up your Direct debit, send us your address and we will forward the CD and booklet. In anticipation we thank you for your support.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk