Down With The Fences! - The Struggle For The Global Commons - May 1st - May 11th

bristol | miscellaneous | news report Thursday April 24, 2008 12:33 by WES - Bristol Radical History Group thewillsimpson at yahoo dot co dot uk

Bristol Radical History Group's May events focus on one of the current burning issues within our city - the ownership of public space.

Hot on the heels of last October’s Radical History Week 2007, Bristol Radical History Group return this May with ten days of events dedicated to the Commons then and now.

This doesn’t have anything to do with the House Of Commons. In this case, the Commons are places, spaces or environments that are owned by no one but shared by all. As the world faces a wave of new enclosures brought about by globalisation we’ll hopefully examine some of the history of the ‘commons’, their enclosure and the spirited resistance to private ownership over the centuries.

From the Magna Carta to the enclosure rioters of the Forest of Dean; from the disappearance of school playing fields to the Premier League’s commercialisation of the peoples’ game; from the massive gentrification programme launched in our cities to the attempts to privatise the human genome, we will investigate the process of enclosure, the forces that drive it and some of the historical and current confrontations that have occurred as a result.

We will try to answer some of these questions during these events. How do the struggles of yesteryear against enclosure relate to the present day? Have significant victories been won or has it been a one-way series of defeats? And how should we defend our free spaces from our playing fields to the Internet?

Speakers include: Peter Linebaugh (University of Toledo, USA) author of the newly published ‘The Magna Carta Manifesto: Liberties and Commons for All’, George Caffentzis (University of Southern Maine, USA) author of ‘Clipped Coins, Abused Words, and Civil Government: John Locke's Philosophy of Money’, and David Goldblatt author of ‘The Ball is Round: A Global History of Soccer’.

As usual the ten days of events will include public lectures and debates, films, gigs, children’s activities and a day trip to the Forest of Dean’s legendary ‘free’ coal mine. The lectures and talks are given by members of the public, local history groups and visiting expert speakers. All events are free or of minimal cost and open for anybody to attend.

Bristol Radical History Group has organised more than 50 events over the last 18 months, which have attracted nearly 2000 visitors. The popular Radical History Weeks have included re-enactments, pirate boat trips and visiting speakers from far and wide, making a major contribution to popular history in our region. A third Radical History Week is already being planned for October 2008.

All the events are organised by local people from Bristol and are NOT funded by Universities, Political Parties, Business or Local Government. To break even we rely on donations from the audience at meetings and the sale of books.

More specific details of the events, dates and venues can be obtained from our website at: www.brh.org.uk

We can be contacted at: brh@brh.org.uk