Showing posts with label Govanhill International Festival. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Govanhill International Festival. Show all posts

Friday, 7 July 2023

Revolting Art



          We live in a world of chaos, pillage and plunder, all managed and manipulated by powerful and rich individuals and corporations, aided and abetted by the various states. All to their advantage at the expense of the lives of ordinary people, the ones who actually produce all that wealth. Wars, ecological disasters, mass poverty, gross injustice and inequality is the norm produced by this economic system of insanity and greed.
          However, below the surface there is always a rumbling of anger and an army of people working hard at trying to change this mayhem to a fairer and sustainable system, a system freed from the profit motive, that sees to the needs of all our people built on mutual aid and co-operation.
          That underground army must use every means at its disposal from literature on the streets, autonomous spaces, community based mutual aid groups, workplace organisations that build solidarity, mass protests, direct action, strikes and reminding everybody of the history of this economic system of greed and exploitation.
         We also should never forget the part art and poetry can make to this struggle for justice. Both these mediums can inspire, point a direction, awaken those feelings of desire for freedom and explain the basic injustices of the present economic system. 

          So, not to be missed is an exhibition of art works by Euan Sutherland, Portraits of Power. This will run from Tuesday 1st to Saturday 12th. August and will be held in The Deep End 21 Nithsdale Street G41 2PZ This exhibition will be part of the Govanhill International Festival here is a copy of the festival program
 

 

Between Dignity and Poverty

In this metropolis of wealth with its fountains of opulence
We are the excluded army that walks that tightrope
Between dignity and poverty.
The excluded, the marginalised, the forgotten,
Regulated by mercenaries, some with guns, others with pens.
They know not, we are their brothers and sisters.
Nor do they know,
Our strength is forged in the humiliation of the bread line
Our daily question, will there be food,
Or will the pangs of hunger stay.
We exist in a system of numbers and balance sheets,
Our lives, dehumanised statistics,
Catalogued and filed by a blind accountant.
When asked to count our dead, do we count the living dead?
Will this tightrope be the inheritance to our children
Or shall our tortured journey lead us from anxiety to revolt
Will the anguish of our children feed our righteous anger
Causing us to tear asunder this fabricated web of injustice 
 

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info  

Tuesday, 13 August 2019

Help Bring Our Family Together.



          As the far right continues to raise its vile head and spout it's divisive vomit, pitting people against people, we the ordinary people have to come together celebrating our differences, our different histories, our different cultures. We have to grasp the truth and realise that we live in a small planet with limited resources and we all belong to the same family, the human family. Any philosophy that divides us, destroys us, we can't survive living in our own wee small enclave at odds with and in competition with others. We can only survive by coming together in mutual co-operation and sharing those finite resources.
        Glasgow is home to a multitude of cultures, each with its own unique history, a history of struggle of ordinary people for survival.
         Glasgow has a history it can be proud of, of different cultures coming together and working to their mutual benefit and to the enrichment of our city's vibrancy. The people of Glasgow have come together time and time again to embrace that co-operation and mutual respect among its very varied communities. The most recent has been the Govanhill International Festival and Carnival, an event of joy and an exciting pleasure that does Glasgow proud.
       Coming up on the near horizon is another multi-culture festival a coming together of a variety of cultures and histories, part of the mosaic that makes human life so vibrant, so rich and so enjoyable.
       This one is to be held in that great wee town of Pitlochry, It is the Bing Anee Festival, so mark your diary and see if you can make your way there and help make the human family a richer and happier family than it is a present.

Details of the Bing Anee Festival:
 
 
            Please visit the Website pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com
             or enquire via the Box Office Phone 01796 484 626
                                     www.rajpot.org.uk
Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Thursday, 8 August 2019

Free Event Spirit of Revolt Show Case.

      Wee reminder of Spirit of Revolt's next free outreach event. As usual the aim is  to bring the people to the archive, and to bring Glasgow's radical history to the people.

Spirit of Revolt - Archives of Dissent
Showcase
11am - 3pm
Saturday 10th August,
The Deep End, 21 Nithsdale Street Glasgow G41 2PZ.

      Spirit of Revolt will present a showcase of material from Spirit of Revolt -
Archives of Dissent.

      Come along to get a look at materials from our collections. There will be a focus on actions and campaigns connected to the southside of Glasgow including: Pollok Free State; Workers City (Farquhar McLay), Castlemilk Claimaints Union, housing campaigns and more from the John Cooper Collection.


      Part of Govanhill International Festival & Carnival
 
Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Tuesday, 6 August 2019

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. 

     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