Spirit of Revolt is proud to work alongside Clydeside IWW, Scottish Peace Network, Document Human Rights Film Festival, and Fairfield Heritage Centre, in producing this event. The Rent Strike was a tremendous victory in working class struggle, an important part of our heritage, an event we can still learn from, and feel proud of all those who brought that victory to fruition.
Document
Human Rights Film Festival – Spirit
of Revolt – Scottish
Peace Network – Industrial
Workers of the World (IWW)
Present
We are not removing! Two films and a blether for the centenary of the 1915 Rent Strikes
Pearce Institute, Thursday 4 June 2015, 7pm
Free / donations welcome / Refreshments
provided / Free crèche (please book)
The
1915 rent strikes, which started in the back-courts of Govan
tenements, were a famous victory in the ongoing struggle for decent,
affordable housing, and an example of working-class solidarity in
action. While the workers were risking their lives at the front, or
their health in the munitions factories of the First World War, the
landlords tried to increase the rents. But the women were not having
any of that. They didn’t have the vote yet, but they had each
other’s backs when they said – We are not removing!
Films:Red Skirts on Clydeside (1984, 43min)
Introduced by filmmaker Jenny Woodley
When
this film was made, the importance of women in the history of social
movements on the Clyde had been all but forgotten. The filmmakers
bring this history back from the archives through interviews with
women who knew Mary Barbour, Helen Crawfurd, and Agnes Dollan. Hear
how the sheriff officers got chucked into the midden and how the
tenement back courts echoed with radical ideas!
You
Play Your Part (2011, 24min)
Introduced by filmmaker Kirsten MacLeod
Twenty-seven
years after the original film was made, Govan women reflect on their
lives and roles by the Clyde in a unique collaborative women’s
history film project.
There will be some time and refreshments between the films for
anyone interested in the rent strikes centenary or in contemporary
housing issues to meet and chat.
Free
crèche will
be available, please contact the organisers to book a place.
Fairfield
Heritage Centre will be open until 7pm on this evening.
A short walk from the Pearce Institute, featuring displays on
shipbuilding and local history, including the rent strikes, in
A-listed shipyard offices: http://www.fairfieldgovan.co.uk/heritage/
Earlier that day there is an event at Glasgow
University on film and history, including films about the UCS
work-in, Pollok Free State, and the Govanhill Baths. Please click
here for details.
