There is a lot to see up on the heights, where I left us last time, and I enjoyed every moment of it. Once we got back to the bridge (see the first post in this ‘series within a series‘) it was time for a decision. The others wanted to go down to the beach to finish, whereas I had by that stage reached a limit, and opted to get the Land Rover back up from the landward side of the bridge (there is a pick up point a very short walk from the bridge). We agreed to meet at the pub near the top of the Land Rover’s run. The Wootons as it is called is very unflashy pub, unlike a couple of others in the area, and I was pleased to find a pint that I had not previously sampled. Although this brings the visit to Tintagel to a close, the next post will actually conclude my account of the outing.
Another aspect of this site.
My chosen refreshment – a pint of Sea Fury, brewed by the same people who make Doom Bar (at £3.80 it was a little expensive, but given the location hardly extorotionate).
Ian Rappel and Sarah Ensor’s meeting on biodiversity and species extinction covered in detail. #Marxism2017
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to this post in my series about Marxism 2017. The meeting covered in this post was the second that I attended on day 1 of the festival. Most of the rest of this post will be photographs from that meeting, but before getting to the main meat I have one small thing to do relating to my previous post…
ERRATUM
In the first published version of my post about day 1 I labelled a logo as being from the front of a TEAM t-shirt. It was not, and I have corrected the original post, but I refuse to do the blogging equivalent of sneaking out a correction in 6pt type in the middle of page 27, so here is a picture showing the a TEAM t-shirt:
BIODIVERSITY AND SPECIES EXTINCTION
Of our two speakers, Ian Rappel is a conservation biologist and was looking at the overall picture, while Sarah Ensor, author the blog Herring and Class Struggle, focused on the oceans.
THE PRELIMINARIES
Here are the photos from before the main talks:
The speakers and chair (centre) at the platform
The chair introducing the meeting
PART 1: IAN RAPPEL
Four diverse life forms – sperm whales, ants, duckweed (the smallest of all vascular plants), tardigrades
There will be more on the Anthropocene later in this series, with an account of Ian Angus’ meeting on this subject.
This was an important meeting, and I welcome the higher profile that nature and ecology are enjoying at this year’s Marxism (I have been to three meetings on the topic already, with another three scheduled for this final day). I cannot say that I enjoyed it, but I am glad that I attended and was glad to note that there were few empty seats.
Welcome to this post about the opening day of Marxism 2017 (see @MarxismFestival on twitter). As I write this, we are having our lunch break on Day 3.
GETTING THERE
With the first meeting due to begin at 12:30 on Thursday I opted for the 9:57 train from King’s Lynn. I duly arriuved with time to deposit my larger bag in the designated bag room, get information about the exact details of my accommodation (I was in a hall of residence, just not sure exactly where).
MEETING 1: SARAH BATES ON WHAT SOCIALISM WOULD BE LIKE
This was an excellent start to the festival, addressing the question of what we are for. Sarah provided an excellent lead off, and the discussion that followed was also excellent. Here are some pictures from the early stages of the event:
Sarah BatesSimon, chair of this meeting.Sarah making her speech.
MEETING 2: BIODIVERSITY AND SPECIES EXTINCTION – SARAH ENSOR AND IAN RAPPEL
This meeting featured so much in depth information that I shall be devoting a whole post to it. For the moment, here are a couple of pics to whet the appetite:
MEETING 3: ANTISEMITISM, ISLAMOPHOBIA AND THE FAR RIGHT: ROB FERGUSON
An excellent meeting, with the main speaker an anti-Zionist Jew.
Meeting chair and a member of the TEAM – and as a six-time former TEAM member I can tell that they do a marvellous job of running the event and that it is a very demanding one.
Rob Ferguson speaking
THE OPENING RALLY
We had a superb venue for our opening rally, The Light, Friends Meeting House, Euston Road. We also had speakers to match, with people from all sorts of campaigns, such as cleaning workers who had bested the bosses at the London School of Economics, anti-fracking campaigners from Lancashire, speakers from the Justice for Grenfell campaign and campaigners against police brutality. I think everyone left this meeting feeling angered but also uplifted.
The light part of “The Light” – a gigantic skylight.A close-up of the view through said skylight.
Sarah Bates introducing the opening rally.
AROUND AND ABOUT
I conclude this post with some photos from this part of central London:
The frontage of Warren Street StationEuston Square, one of the original 1863 stations, now with a hyper-modern surface building.The moon, darkened to bring out its finest points.This Church is visible from the Gallery Bar at Student Central.
aspiblog 