Yesterday started with a walk around King’s Lynn which yielded some excellent pictures, finishing at my aunt’s house for the journey to East Rudham for Sunday lunch. While there I had to photograph some books for my father. Later on, I sat outside and observed many bees and some butterflies enjoying the wild marjoram that grows just outside my parents house.
A compelling day of test cricket, which saw India clear favourites with a day to go, although if Joe Root and Moeen Ali bat well today it could very interesting.
Also yesterday was the final day of the Open, although there was little tension there as Rory McIlroy led the tournament pretty much from start to finish and went into the final day six shots to the good.
As usual I have a selection of photographs for you..
Sea birds overlooking the Nar outfall.
Two butterflies in close proximity
Butterfly and pebbles
A large bumble bee and a tortoiseshell butterlfy in close proximity
This railway map of South Africa featured in all three volumes of a very rare history of South African Railways
Yes I am nearly at the end of my series of posts about Marxism 2014 (one more after this as an overall retrospective).
Given the necessity of stowing my more awkward baggage (I had nothing that was massively heavy) in the room set aside for such purposes, it was necessary that I set off early on this final morning so as to have time to do so. Therefore at 8:15 AM I said goodbye to the person who I had been staying with and set off on my travels.
Having made allowances for things to go wrong I arrived at the venue at 9:30, exactly as envisaged/ intended.
My last two regular meetings were Emma Davis on “The Russian Revolution and the fight for women’s liberation” and Kieran Allen from the Irish SWP on “Alternatives to capitalism”.
After lunch it was time for the final rally, expertly chaired by Emma Davis. We had someone from Gaza address us via skype, student activist Kate Hurford, Evronia Azer from Egypt and SWP national secretary Charlie Kimber to finish it off. I missed the tail-end of the final rally because I did not wish to stand all the way to Cambridge on the train home (my inevitable fate had I got on the 16:45), so ensured that I would get to King’s Cross in good time for the 15:45.
As always I have some excellent photos for you…
Emma Davis prepares for the first meeting of the day.
Emma and chair Ellie ready to start the day in the Drama Studio
My last effort at capturing abstract art in the Elvin Hall – I think the posters give the painting scale
Alex Callinicos (stepped in as chair) and Kieran Allen ready for the second meeting of the day
Marxism 2014 organiser Amy gives chair Emma some last minute advice. On Emma’s other side are Kate and EvroniaAll the speakers who would be live in the hall plus Emma and Amy
Emma sets the sceneSkype from GazaStudent activist Kate addresses the rallyEvronia talks about the Egyptian situationEmma introduces the final speaker, national secretary CharlieCharlie Kimber at the mic.
There is much evidence of civic pride in central King’s Lynn at the moment, from the increasing ornamentation of the pedestrianized precinct to the installations on the lower Purfleet and on the bank of the Great Ouse. Also I was heartened to see the jetty getting good use.
I saw all of this while making a trip to and from the Hardwick Estate, to do a food shop. The weather was horrendously hot and humid, although as the photos show the snails clearly enjoyed it.
A slightly later than intended departure from Poplar did not quite make me late for the first meeting, in my case Jan Nielsen on how women’s lives were transformed by WW1 (I made a point of attending plenty of meetings about WW1 due to my role in the Great Centenary Charity Auction). I then went down one floor to attend the meeting on the origins of women’s oppression. After lunch I went to “Disabled people against austerity”, which was the fieriest meeting I attended all weekend. Then came the booklaunch meeting for Martin Empsons Land and Labour: Marxism, Ecology and Human History.
My day ended with a meeting on Disability and WW1: from shellshock to revolution. This meeting was well attended in spite of being up on the 7th floor. There were some shocking photos, which I have asked the speaker to email to me. I may use some of them on www.greatcharity.org, www.facebook.com/GreatAuction and/ or www.twitter.com/great_auction.
As always there were plenty of good photos:
The platform just before the start of the days first meeting in room 802Jan Nielsen speaking about how women’s lives were transformed b y WW1Books about women’soppression on the pplatform at that meeting
Helen Salmon speaking about the origins of women’s oppressionMartin Empson and the chair prepare for his book laucnh meeting.Martin Empson speaking about Land and Labour: Marxism, Ecology and Human HistorySpeaker Roddy and chair Siobhan prepare for the final meeting of the day in room 784The speaker, the chair and two interpreters who will provide sign language for the deafRoddy’s pamphlet
Roddy Slorach in full flowQuite a change from Mr Beck’s original – the London Undergorund diagram 2014 versionJubilee line trainOld stock masquerading as new: front view of a tarted up train of D78 stock
The smoking gun – note the patch covering the push-button that used to operate this door when that was thought to be a good notionGenuinely new stock – trains of this type, with concertina joins rather than bogie couplings now run on the Circle, Hammersmith and City and Metropolitan linesSponsorship makes its presence felt in the world of public transport!The front of a Hammesmith and City line train
Decorations in Canning Town stationThe local football team are known colloquially as the irons and also as the hammers and this is a clue as to why.
A very busy day at James and Sons – to the extent that my one and only break did not come until 2:50PM because getting the outstanding imaging for the July sale done was the priority.
The Saturday at Marxism is always the busiest day – everyone who will be attending the event has arrived by then and nobody will be going home until the Sunday at the earliest and this year was no exception.
Nevertheless, i was not unduly worried that we got to Euston Square with only a bare 10 minutes before the start of the first meeting, although the bad news for me was that I was heading up to the seventh floor of the Institute of Education (due to the way in which the floors are numbered only 3-4 floors above where you enter the building depending on which side you go in) which since I refused to use the lifts meant a bit of a climb upstairs.
Although I enjoyed everything that I attended as I usually do at Marxism I am going to concentrate on the 3:45 – 5PM slot, at which I attended Ten years on: remembering Paul Foot, which was organised with four excellent platform speakers all of whom had known and worked with Paul Foot, and a few contributions from others likewise, but not run as a standard meeting.
Inspired by this session I changed my plans for the last meeting, giving John Molyneux on Art and WW1 a miss and instead attending Alex Callinicos on Is the far left in crisis? instead, which meant a return to the Logan Hall. Mention of WW1 leads again to those links: www.greatcharity.org, www.facebook.com/GreatAuction and www.twiiter.com/great_auction
All in all a thoroughly good day, and as you will see, plenty of good photos…
Huw Williams speaks about Marxism and Anarchism
Suzanne Jeffery talking about climate change.
Matt Foot on are the police in crisis? (a resounding yes)Rhetta Moran, the other main speaker at the are the police in crisis? meeting talks about the brutality meted out to anti-fascist protesters in Bolton
Journalist Darcus Howe and human rights lawayer Gareth Peirce in conversation before the Paul Foot memorial meeting
All four of the panel for the Paul foot memorial meeting: John Pilger, Darcus Howe, Gareth Peirce and Matt Foot
Gareth PeirceMatt Foot, legal aid campaigner of the year and son of Paul Foot
John PilgerDarcus Howe
Alex Callinicos on is the far left in crisis?Alex Callinicos made a point of saying that he had noticed the name of the person with whom this bottle of coke was supposed to be shared!
It was raining on the Friday morning, so my host suggested we get the bus to Stratford as that route involved less walking. We initially had a view to getting the Central line all the way to Tottenham Court Road, but it was so crowded that this was modified to changing at Mile End to the Hammersmith and City Line and travelling to Euston Square. On subsequent days we would travel the H&C between Euston Square and West Ham, going one stop on the Jubilee to or from Canning Town.
We arrived at the event in good time for the first meeting, in my case John Parrington on Is Science Neutral? Next came Marxism and Mental Health, which so impressed me that I asked the speaker to email me her slides, which she subsequently did. After this it was time for lunch, and the Norwich picnic was easily located courtesy of an inflatable canary which stood out the proverbial mile. The afternoon session had plenty to live up to, but courtesy of Amy Leather (who also organised the whole event) on Fracking and Mark L Thomas (middle initial used to distinguish himself from the comedian who has lately lost his touch somewhat) on The Labour Party and the Unions it did so.
In the evening, in spite of it being the eighth floor, I went to the meeting on WW1 and the British Empire, with Talat Ahmed. This was only right for someone heavily involved in the Great Centenary Charity Auction, more details about which can be found at www.greatcharity.org, www.facebook.com/GreatAuction and/or www.twiiter,com/great_auction
In the bar after the meetings were all done we were treated to some excellent live music before heading back to Poplar for the night.
As usual I have some good photos for you…
John Parrington prepares to speak at the first meeting of the day
Another attempt at the abstract art in the Elvin Hall
Beth Greenhill in position to speak at the meeting on Mental HealthLets be ‘avin’ yer – the canary mentioned in the main text.
The Martin Empson book in excellent, but financial constrainst mean that I have yet to sample the other.This is a detail from one of number of pictures that were projected before meetings started.
The cover of the timetableMark L Thomas in full flow
before the start of the evening sessionTalat Ahmed in actionLive music in the institute bar
A combination of great heat (and apparently tomorrow is due to be even hotter before the storms arrive just in time for the weekend) and a heavy workload made today at James and Sons a more than usually draining day. Still, we are more or less on track for the July auction, which will serve as a dress rehearsal for the Great Centenary Charity Auction in September and is therefore more than usually important.
Hello and welcome to the first in a series of posts, interspersed with my more regular posts that I will be producing about this year’s Marxism Festival.
Travelling down on the 11:56 train (one hour later than usual, as the start of the event was postponed to enable people to take part in Public Sector strikes) I arrived in very good time to deposit my heavier luggage and take my place at the first meeting, which in my case was on What is fascism?, with Jo Cardwell from Waltham Forest. I then took in Brian Richardson on Malcolm X, before attending the opening rally, in a jam packed Logan Hall. There were some wonderful contributions throughout. While the most enthusiastic reception was accorded to South African miner Makhanya Siphamandla that for Afghan asylum seeker Manjeet Kaur was barely any less enthusiastic.
Following the final rally it was time to hook up with the person I was going to be staying with (yes, this time I had actually had details of my accommodation in advance) to make arrangements. This was achieved with the aid of a borrowed mobile and without too much difficulty. Having established that we would have to travel back together each evening as there was only one key and no possibility of cutting a replacement due to the nature of the lock we headed straight back (I was not keen on hanging around with all my bags in tow.
The route we took that night involved the Piccadilly and Jubilee lines (the latter inescapable because the local station at the other end was Canning Town), although we did not use the Piccadilly again. Never mind the hideous eyesore of a development that bankrupted its developers, the true icon of that area is a building designed by Erno Goldfinger where the lift shafts are separate from the main building, and linked to each floor by passageways.
As usual I have plenty of photos…
Abstract art on one side of the Elvin HallAbstract art in the Elvin Hall
The Fight for Inclusive Education (wall art in Nunn Hall)
A bust of Mr Jeffery outside the hall named in his honour at the Institute of education.
This post is devoted entirely to the extremely scenic walk from Cerne Abbas (of chalk giant fame) back to the house in which we were staying. The viewing point for the giant is about 5 minutes walk from the centre of the village and is beautifully sited. From the viewing point I walked up to the tiny village of Minterne Parva before following a very overgrown footpath to Buckland Newton.
Buckland Newton is a pretty village though it is a sign of the times that the Gaggle of Geese pub has closed down. I left Buckland Newton on the road towards Alton Pancras, from whence a path led practically to where we were staying. However, I got too ambitious, and tried to save a bit on the route by taking another likely looking path before reaching Alton Pancras.
This led to a nerve jangling encounter with some bullocks and then a scramble down to the only visible road from the other side of the field when in spite of signs indicating its presence there was no evidence of the Wessex Ridgeway Path. I was badly off track, near the village of Brockhampton, 4 miles from Mappowder, which in turn was a good couple of miles from where I was aiming, but I no longer dared do other than follow the road.
Although the walk ended up being longer than I had intended it was mainly very enjoyable, and provided a vast haul of quality photos…
The famous giant in all its glory.
This house is visible from the heights between Minterne Parva and Buckland Newton
One of the gateposts of what used to be the Gaggle of Geese
Unlike Buckland Newton’s much plainer affair, Mappowder Church is genuine quite impressive.
aspiblog 