Trauma of History: Monday 4th June 07

Repairing the Trauma of History: What does an apology of substance look like?

Date: Monday 4th June
Time: 10:30am -1pm
Location: Deptford Town Hall

A unique event will take place outside Deptford Town Hall, New Cross Road on the morning of Monday 4 th June 2007. A group of people wearing yokes and chains will stop outside the town hall and attempt to make reparation for the acts of the seamen carved in stone on the front of the building. The statues are of three figures with disreputable histories:


Sir Francis Drake was a pioneer of the slave trade making at least three royally sponsored trips to West Africa to kidnap Africans and sell them into slavery.

Robert Blake was Cromwell's chief admiral and fought the Dutch to secure the trade triangle between the Caribbean, West Africa and England.

Lord Horatio Nelson was a fierce advocate for the trade. He wrote from the Victory on the eve of Trafalgar that as long as he would speak and fight he would resist "the damnable doctrines of Wilberforce and his hypocritical allies".


The ceremony outside the town hall is only one way to address the history and consequences of the slave trade and slavery. Recent discussion around the bicentenary commemorations of the Abolition Act of 1807 has polarised public opinion, as to what should or shouldn't be done. However, it is clear that the debate needs to continue.


To this end, following the ceremony, Goldsmiths is hosting a debate inside the town hall on the themes of reparation and apology which will focus on practical ways to address the issue. A panel of speakers will discuss a diverse range of approaches. The speakers include:
David Potts – Expedition Lifeline
Dr Jean Besson – Anthropology Department, Goldsmiths
Toyin Agbetu – Ligali
Esther Stanford – Rendezvous for Victory
Dr William 'Lez' Henry – Sociology Department, Goldsmiths

There will be opportunities for discussion and debate from the floor. All are welcome to attend and join in.

For further information please contact:

Paul Hendrich
paulhendrich@gmail.com

Nandigram and beyond Saturday 26 May 2.30pm 2007

Resisting Re-colonisation in India

Nandigram and beyond

Film screening and discussion

Saturday 26 May 2.30pm

SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, London WC1 (tube: Russell Sq.)

The brutal and premeditated massacre of men, women and children by police in Nandigram in West Bengal on 14 and 15 March this year brought into sharp focus the fact that across India thousands of people are resisting the seizure of their land in the ‘biggest land-grab since the colonial period’. Under the Special Economic Zones Act (2005) vast swathes of fertile agricultural land are being forcibly acquired to be handed over to transnational corporations. These SEZs will be virtually foreign territories controlled by the corporations – labour and tax laws will not apply, elected local government will be replaced by an unelected ‘development commissioner’, and local people will need passes to enter the land they used to cultivate. And while the government claims that the land will be used for productive industry, in reality the SEZs Act is a cover for global real-estate speculation – a large proportion of the land will be used for luxury housing developments, shopping malls, and exclusive tourist ‘enclaves’ which Indians will be forbidden to enter.

The film ‘This land is mine’ hears from the residents of Nandigram about the horrific police attacks of 14 and 15 March, the ongoing violence and attempts to starve them into submission through an economic blockade, the repression being unleashed on the movement of workers, activists, intellectuals and artists who have come out in their support, and their determination to continue to resist. We will be discussing how to build solidarity with the peasants of Nandigram and the many other parts of India where local people are taking on the state and corporate capital over SEZs.

This meeting is part of a series of events organised by South Asia Solidarity Group and the 1857 Committee in the context of the 150^th anniversary of the 1857 uprisings. For more details contact sasg@southasiasolidarity.org
- and read here. And http://www.1857.org.uk/.

Andrew Benjamin wed 9 May 2007

Centre for Cultural Studies Visiting Professor Andrew Benjamin talks at Goldsmiths

"Violence and Legitimacy"


Wednesday 9 May 2007

10am to 12 noon, Ben Pimlott Lecture Theatre

Professor Benjamin will present from work-in-progress on violence and legitimacy. His paper considers the fascination of violence and the manner in which it exerts a hold and commands notice despite its apparent warrant of revulsion. This fascination operates aesthetically across a range of media such that any easily formed distinction between art practices and journalism soon vanishes. Once removed from mere presentation violence oscillates between judgment and legitimation. The word’s ease of use does not belie the problem of definition. And yet, its definition is all too easily assumed. If assumptions, rather than being given centrality are deferred, then it may be possible to approach the violent by beginning with the complex interplay between fascination, judgment and legitimation.

Andrew Benjamin is Visiting Professor at Centre for Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths. He is currently Associate Dean of Research in the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Built Environment at the University of Technology Sydney and Professor of Critical Theory at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Previously he has taught at Warwick University's Centre for Research in Philosophy and Literature.

All welcome.


And don't forget afterwards:

Wednesday 9 May 2007
Undercover Softness: Politics and Architecture of Decay
An intensive seminar with philosopher and freelance writer Reza Negarestani (Iran) 2-5pm, Room DTH109
The first in a new seminar series: Architectures of Abstraction. Contact Luciana to attend.
See <http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/cultural-studies/events.php> for more info on all CCS events.

Vigil for Brian Douglas

8 May 2007

A vigil is being held for Brian Douglas, who died on 8 May 1995 after being arrested by police officers in south London.

• Tuesday 8 May 2007, from 7.30pm
• Kennington police station, Kennington Road, London, SE1. (Nearest tube: Lambeth North)

Please dress in black. The vigil is supported by the United Families & Friends Campaign the coalition of family campaigns of those who have died in custody.

For further information contact the Justice for Brian Douglas Campaign on 07956 629 889. Media queries contact 07770 432 439.

[pic is of Jasmine Elvie, Brian's Mother - from www.injusticefilm.co.uk]

Sokari Douglas Camp - 12&13 May 2007

Click to Enlarge.

And Please do go to Hyde Park this weekend to Vote. Its this one or the other one, and the other one is just not this.

The other one looks like Wilberforces birthday cake. It is not the one I voted for, I can tell you over and over