With the Murdoch Media scandal ongoing, the massacre in Norway and continuing
starvation of growing numbers in Somalia, plus the rise in poverty globally as
the cuts hit, whilst we pay for the bosses’ crisis, it would be easy to
despair. In the UK alone, there has been a rise of those taking anti
depressants to 43% in the past 4 years, with more and more workers and
communities struggling with unsecure jobs, homes and futures. The question seem
unanswered, what kind of world are we living? It could be easy in some ways to
think this was just part of life, something to accept or that theres nothing we
can do to change things. But we can! We are part of the trade union and anti
cuts movement not just to fight for our jobs, services and homes but, within
that, fight the establishments idea that says we can not or do not have the
right to fight, to question or to consider alternative ways of running our
society for the collective benefit of us all, not the tiny minority who work
hard to burden us with their greed and manipulation.
Last Saturday in Derby saw a huge trade union and community demonstrations of
around 10,000 against the closure of Bombardier.
http://www.shopstewards.net/news.129.htm
NSSN midlands held a public meeting with the Vice chair of the Bombardier shop
stewards committee, Alex Gordon RMT president and Rob Williams NSSN organiser.
The nationalisation of the company was called for; something that unfortunately
none of the outdoor platform speakers suggested. http://tinyurl.com/3jysbkj
Shamefully, Tony Woodley of UNITE ended his speech at the main rally with the
call for ‘British jobs for British workers.’ This pandering to the race to
the bottom and dangerous set of nationalist ideas was unnecessary and holds out
nationalism and the ideas of the far right as the torch to follow. It is not a
fight between worker against worker in this country or workers in other
countries but a fight by workers in every country for our jobs and future.
And that is part of the reason we are lobbying the TUC on the 11th of Sep. To
push our leaderships to make use of all the resources, financial, human
publicity to call for a 24 hour public sector strike, to raise the idea more
clearly and openly of co-coordinated action and not to leave it rotting on a
website of motions passed for the virtual world to imagine that because its
written, it will happen, it wont, anything we have ever fought for, takes time,
energy, conversations, meetings, actions, strategies worked out together and
then for each and everyone of us to take responsibility to act together.
We welcome the national support from RMT & PCS for the lobby of the TUC and
Mark Serwotka and Bob Crow will be speaking at our rally, starting at 1:30-3:30
on the 11th at Friends meeting house before we move onto the march and protest
at TUC. Coaches have been booked from Newcastle, Coventry & Stoke so far, other
areas will be organizing to come together on trains and in cars.
http://www.shopstewards.net/sign.htm
Leaflets & Petitions: http://www.shopstewards.net/resources.leaflets.htm
As the volume of work has increased with the number of events and actions we
are involved in we need more finances: Please send in donations and
affilations: http://www.shopstewards.net/affiliate.htm
DISPUTES & UPDATES
Swindon Honda Steward Suspended
The National Shop Stewards Network has just received word that Paddy Brennan,
UNITE Convenor at the Swindon Honda plant has been suspended from work. More
details to follow when we get them, but Paddy's suspension is a provocative
attack on a prominent trade union fighter and by extension an attack on the
right to organise at Honda. We demand Paddy's reinstatement and the NSSN
pledges to do all it can in support of this.
Please text messages of support to Paddy on 07503 174 827 and email letters of
protest to humgen@honda-eu.com. More updates to follow.
EDL & Muslims Against Crusades
The right-wing group Muslims Against Crusades has called a national
mobilisation in Waltham Forest this Saturday; in response, the EDL are
threatening a counter-protest.
Waltham Forest Anti-Cuts Union is calling on all trade unionists and
anti-fascists to come to Walthamstow Town Square on this Saturday 30th July
from 11am onwards. This is to help the Anti-Cuts Union give out leaflets
promoting working class solidarity, opposing all those forces that create
divisions in the fight-back against cuts, and pointing the finger at the real
fight culprits ie the bankers, the bond traders, speculators and global finance
companies.
We stand for working class solidarity in Waltham Forest against any demands
that workers pay for bankers’ greed, and we will not allow our neighbourhood
and our fightback to be divided along racist or religious lines.
NUJ Strikes
Members of the NUJ working at the BBC will be taking their second 24-hour
strike action on Monday 1st August in opposition to compulsory redundancies of
NUJ members in the BBC. The industrial action will be from 00.01 hours to 23.59
hours on Monday 1st August 2011 and there will be picket lines on a majority of
the BBC sites across the United Kingdom. There will be an indefinite work to
rule from 2nd August 2011.
Coca-Cola Strikes
Workers from Coca-Cola Enterprises have voted overwhelmingly for industrial
action. Staff from distribution centers across the country will strike for 24
hours from 6am on 4 August in a dispute over pay with an offer of 2.3% 4th
August
http://tinyurl.com/3g4n7fy
Save Our Coastguards
Over 200 people packed into Oystermouth primary school, Swansea on Friday
evening (22 July) to hear coastguards and local campaigners make the case for
saving Swansea coastguard station.
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-swansea-coastguard.html and respond to
the consultation on the Department for Transport web site.The original
government proposal was to close Milford Haven station and downgrade Swansea to
a daylight hour’s only service. Now the Con-Dem coalition has done a U-turn
and proposes to close Swansea, the busiest coastguard station in Wales,
although Milford Haven has had a reprieve.
Remploy
Remploy & the Sayce report: Remploy is still the biggest employer of disabled
people in the UK, but it must be remembered that it is not the ONLY employer of
disabled people there are still very many more ranging from factories run by
charities to those run by local authorities.
Birmingham Council backtracks on offshoring: http://tinyurl.com/3ffalzj
Stop bullying disabled claimants, says PCS
http://tinyurl.com/3eppk4a
Support for Korean strikers as they picket Standard Chartered UK headquarters
http://tinyurl.com/3g9vfz9
RMT & TSSA to merge: http://tinyurl.com/42rdngg
DIARY
Sat 30 July
12 - 3pm Croydon Town Centre, North End
GMB to join UK UNCUT protest in CROYDON over cuts and tax dodging at SOUTHERN
CROSS HOMES : http://tinyurl.com/42jmd9w
Mon 1 August 12.30pm
Demonstration against the Health Bill when Health Minister Andrew Lansley will
be at the Royal Hospital Farnborough, Bromley BR6 8ND from 1 to 1.45pm to open
the new stroke unit (which we are not against!). Assemble at car park entrance
to Hospital near Sainsbury’s. Frances Hook Tel: 020 8853 2567
Wed 3rd August
Southampton Council Strike Rally Guildhall Square Southampton 11am
Brighton Stop the Cuts 7:30pm King and Queen
25th July – 12th August News International Wapping – 25 Years on TUC
http://tinyurl.com/3pk37te
11th Sep Rally & Lobby TUC for call for 24 hour public sector strike!
Assemble 1.30pm Friends Meeting Hse, Euston Rd, NW1 for a rally before our
protest.
http://www.shopstewards.net/sign.htm
5th November London March for Jobs
Youth Fight for Jobs is marching from Jarrow to London, starting on 1 October
2011. This is on the 75 anniversary of the Jarrow Crusade, when 200 unemployed
workers took a similar route to raise awareness of mass unemployment
http://jarrowmarch11.com/about/
Join, Get involved, and donate!
http://www.stopcuts.net/affiliate.htm
info@shopstewards.net
07952 283 558
Friday, 29 July 2011
Friday, 22 July 2011
NSSN Bulletin 22nd July
nfo@shopstewards.net via riseup.net to shopstewardsnet
show details 22 Jul (13 days ago)
Mark Serwotka PCS General Secretary this week called for Maximun Unity over
pensions. PCS is considering further industrial action in the autumn aimed at
putting more pressure on the government to agree to full and meaningful
negotiations on all the main issues, and there are already indications there
will be more unions on board. http://bit.ly/oRHetT.
A joint statement from UCU, NUT & ATL noted the success of the strike & concern
at the lack of real negotations, which could lead to more action in the Autumn.
The National Association of Head Teachers and UCAC have also already decided to
ballot their members for industrial action so joint co-ordinated action in
Education is developing further. http://bit.ly/evExBC.
Last week the NEC of PCS agreed to support the NSSN march & lobby of the TUC on
Sep 11th. PCS will be moving a resolution at this year's TUC conference calling
for co-ordinated industrial action to defend public sector pensions. However,
we are aware that some key motions may have been supported in the few years
which include and require the TUC to lead the fight over the cuts which are
devasting our lives and the futures of our younger generation, but there has
been little if any actions taken to move these motions into reality. The
demonstration of the 26th March showed a little of what is possible when the
TUC begin to mobilise its membership, a call for national co-ordinated action
will have an echo from so many more workers now the cuts have really begun to
bite. Please arrange to attend the 11th Sep lobby, invite your fellow stewards,
members, friends and family & also sign the petition we will be handing in to
the TUC. http://bit.ly/qVuOAW. The pre-lobby rally is in the Friends Meeting
House on Euston Rd, NW1 2BJ. The speakers include PCS General Secretary Mark
Serwotka - for flyer http://bit.ly/phIn71 and letter to union branches & trades
councils http://bit.ly/nQckWS.
London NSSN, RMT, CWU, FBU & PCS joint meeting earlier this week started with
Steve Hedley RMT London, "This is what the National Shop Stewards Network is
for - to bring together the most advanced elements in the unions to develop
strategy." He and others also discussed the need for Unions such as Unite,
Unsion & GMB to take part in the co-ordinated action, the need to ensure unions
are not divided by the government was essential. Ben Sprung (FBU London)
reported that the FBU had agreed to ballot its members over pensions, and is
"fully prepared for serious, sustained action; of course we want to be in
coordinated action". The meeting was an important step in London to bring
together leading members of some of the most powerful unions for the battles
ahead and also begin to mobilse for the lobby of the TUC 11th Sep.
We have been actively supporting the campaign to save the 1400 Bombardier jobs
and will be marching with RMT, UNITE, TSSA workers and the community. There
will be a huge march and rally to save Bombardier this Saturday 23rd July 10am
Bass's Recreation Ground. NSSN will be having a meeting after 1pm at the
Flowerpot, 23 King St, Derby, DE1 3DZ with RMT President Alex Gordon to discuss
what next in the fight for jobs. http://bit.ly/pdeDcO.
DISPUTES & UPDATES
Libraries strike suspended - victory for jobs and services
Strike action planned to close all Lambeth Council’s libraries on Friday 22
July will not now be going ahead as the council management conceded that there
will be no compulsory redundancies in an offer put to the union today.
The latest management offer will be put to all UNISON members in Libraries at a
joint shop meeting on Monday. No deal can be made before it is discussed and
agreed by members in Libraries and we can not rule out industrial action to
protect the service, but management’s offer represents a significant victory
as it protects both our jobs and many frontline services.
This is a tribute to the unity and determination of our members in the
libraries, who were ready to strike to defend the library service and protect
their jobs. This is a lesson to every other worker – in Lambeth Council and
elsewhere – that to look after your interests you have to be prepared to take
industrial action.
NUJ - South Yorkshire journalists on indefinite strike to protect jobs
This strike continues and support on picket lines is welcome. Striking South
Yorkshire journalists believe their management is using work placement
volunteers to undermine the industrial action launched by the NUJ last Friday
to protect jobs and quality journalism. A " 16-year-old has been asked to
extend his work experience by a week by bosses desperate to ensure the paper is
printed on time." www.nuj.org.uk.
SOUTHAMPTON UNITE & UNISON - Despite talks the council has refused to withdraw
cuts members are continuing to take selective strike action in parking
services, port health, Itchen Bridge, street cleaning, libraries, children’s
contact centres, building maintenance, refuse collection and vehicle workshops.
Members in social services also voted at a meeting on 19 July to join strike
action in August. UNISON and Unite have already lodged a legal challenge to the
Council’s failure to consult unions on their proposals. http://bit.ly/95wvrY.
TSSA - Strike over equal pay - as women workers recieve £4k less a year than
men on similar grades. http://tinyurl.com/3kvlbkf
NUJ BBC - Thousands of BBC journalists have held a 24-hour strike against
compulsory redundancies, and the NUJ is accusing the corporation's top
management of wilfully avoiding talks which could have averted the stoppage. A
further strike is due on Monday August 1. http://bit.ly/p0VM2P.
REMPLOY- Lobby board in Leicester to save jobs, about 1,000 grievance letters
alleging failure in the duty of care by Remploy’s chief executive, Tim
Matthews, for the organisation’s 2,800 disabled workers have been collected
by Unite, the country’s largest trade union; the GMB; and Community
http://bit.ly/pLUDF8.
Bromley Unison reps leave to join UNITE - This includes newly elected NEC
member Kathy Smith, "Faced with the biggest onslaught against our jobs, wages
and conditions in our history we had a right to expect that every ounce of
energy of the union would be used to fight the employers. However in Bromley,
Unison nationally has put in massive resources, but not to fight the employer
and organise the members, but to effectively strangle the rights of the branch
and its members and its ability to resist the cuts. http://bit.ly/q1OqLi.
Major strike is raging in the Mangistau oblast in the west of Kazakhstan, where
at its height; up to 16,000 workers in the oil industry have been on
strike.Workers faced with jailings, intimidation and brutal repression.
Solidarity urgently needed http://bit.ly/pMVwIZ.
DIARY
23 July
March and rally to save Bombardier:
Saturday 23 July, 10:00 am, Bass’s Recreation Ground
NSSN meeting after the rally:
THE FLOWERPOT
23-25 King St, Derby DE1 3DZ 1:00pm,
http://bit.ly/pdeDcO.
Noon Demo & rally against welfare cuts!
Assemble on The Level, Brighton
http://on.fb.me/rm7BM7.
YouthRock4Jobs gig in Nuneaton .07931455391
http://nuneatonagainstcuts.wordpress.com
25 July
Public meeting: Our NHS is not for sale! 7pm
Friends Meeting House, Ship Street, Brighton
How we can unite to stop the government's cuts and privatisation plans.
Speakers from health workers' trade unions and professional bodies, Keep Our
NHS Public and workers involved in the June 30 strike.
26 July
Lobby the council Communities need council libraries!
1pm, at County Hall, Penrhyn Road, Kingston
www.saveourservic.es
27 July
Lobby of Cambridge City Council
1pm. Meet at Guildhall, Cambridge
www.cambridgeshireagainstthecuts.org.uk/
30 July
12 - 3pm Croydon Town Centre, North End
GMB to join UK UNCUT protest in CROYDON over cuts and tax dodging at SOUTHERN
CROSS HOMES http://bit.ly/nK9wA9.
11 Sep
Assemble 1.30pm Friends Meeting Hse, Euston Rd, NW1 for a rally before our
protest. http://bit.ly/qVuOAW.
March for Jobs
Youth Fight for Jobs is marching from Jarrow to London, starting on 1 October
2011. This is on the 75 anniversary of the Jarrow Crusade, when 200 unemployed
workers took a similar route to raise awareness of mass unemployment.
jarrowmarch11.com.
Some NSSN videos:
http://bit.ly/jP96UU
http://bit.ly/nhMsmP
Join, Get involved, Affilate
http://www.stopcuts.net/affiliate.htm
info@shopstewards.net
07952 283 558
show details 22 Jul (13 days ago)
Mark Serwotka PCS General Secretary this week called for Maximun Unity over
pensions. PCS is considering further industrial action in the autumn aimed at
putting more pressure on the government to agree to full and meaningful
negotiations on all the main issues, and there are already indications there
will be more unions on board. http://bit.ly/oRHetT.
A joint statement from UCU, NUT & ATL noted the success of the strike & concern
at the lack of real negotations, which could lead to more action in the Autumn.
The National Association of Head Teachers and UCAC have also already decided to
ballot their members for industrial action so joint co-ordinated action in
Education is developing further. http://bit.ly/evExBC.
Last week the NEC of PCS agreed to support the NSSN march & lobby of the TUC on
Sep 11th. PCS will be moving a resolution at this year's TUC conference calling
for co-ordinated industrial action to defend public sector pensions. However,
we are aware that some key motions may have been supported in the few years
which include and require the TUC to lead the fight over the cuts which are
devasting our lives and the futures of our younger generation, but there has
been little if any actions taken to move these motions into reality. The
demonstration of the 26th March showed a little of what is possible when the
TUC begin to mobilise its membership, a call for national co-ordinated action
will have an echo from so many more workers now the cuts have really begun to
bite. Please arrange to attend the 11th Sep lobby, invite your fellow stewards,
members, friends and family & also sign the petition we will be handing in to
the TUC. http://bit.ly/qVuOAW. The pre-lobby rally is in the Friends Meeting
House on Euston Rd, NW1 2BJ. The speakers include PCS General Secretary Mark
Serwotka - for flyer http://bit.ly/phIn71 and letter to union branches & trades
councils http://bit.ly/nQckWS.
London NSSN, RMT, CWU, FBU & PCS joint meeting earlier this week started with
Steve Hedley RMT London, "This is what the National Shop Stewards Network is
for - to bring together the most advanced elements in the unions to develop
strategy." He and others also discussed the need for Unions such as Unite,
Unsion & GMB to take part in the co-ordinated action, the need to ensure unions
are not divided by the government was essential. Ben Sprung (FBU London)
reported that the FBU had agreed to ballot its members over pensions, and is
"fully prepared for serious, sustained action; of course we want to be in
coordinated action". The meeting was an important step in London to bring
together leading members of some of the most powerful unions for the battles
ahead and also begin to mobilse for the lobby of the TUC 11th Sep.
We have been actively supporting the campaign to save the 1400 Bombardier jobs
and will be marching with RMT, UNITE, TSSA workers and the community. There
will be a huge march and rally to save Bombardier this Saturday 23rd July 10am
Bass's Recreation Ground. NSSN will be having a meeting after 1pm at the
Flowerpot, 23 King St, Derby, DE1 3DZ with RMT President Alex Gordon to discuss
what next in the fight for jobs. http://bit.ly/pdeDcO.
DISPUTES & UPDATES
Libraries strike suspended - victory for jobs and services
Strike action planned to close all Lambeth Council’s libraries on Friday 22
July will not now be going ahead as the council management conceded that there
will be no compulsory redundancies in an offer put to the union today.
The latest management offer will be put to all UNISON members in Libraries at a
joint shop meeting on Monday. No deal can be made before it is discussed and
agreed by members in Libraries and we can not rule out industrial action to
protect the service, but management’s offer represents a significant victory
as it protects both our jobs and many frontline services.
This is a tribute to the unity and determination of our members in the
libraries, who were ready to strike to defend the library service and protect
their jobs. This is a lesson to every other worker – in Lambeth Council and
elsewhere – that to look after your interests you have to be prepared to take
industrial action.
NUJ - South Yorkshire journalists on indefinite strike to protect jobs
This strike continues and support on picket lines is welcome. Striking South
Yorkshire journalists believe their management is using work placement
volunteers to undermine the industrial action launched by the NUJ last Friday
to protect jobs and quality journalism. A " 16-year-old has been asked to
extend his work experience by a week by bosses desperate to ensure the paper is
printed on time." www.nuj.org.uk.
SOUTHAMPTON UNITE & UNISON - Despite talks the council has refused to withdraw
cuts members are continuing to take selective strike action in parking
services, port health, Itchen Bridge, street cleaning, libraries, children’s
contact centres, building maintenance, refuse collection and vehicle workshops.
Members in social services also voted at a meeting on 19 July to join strike
action in August. UNISON and Unite have already lodged a legal challenge to the
Council’s failure to consult unions on their proposals. http://bit.ly/95wvrY.
TSSA - Strike over equal pay - as women workers recieve £4k less a year than
men on similar grades. http://tinyurl.com/3kvlbkf
NUJ BBC - Thousands of BBC journalists have held a 24-hour strike against
compulsory redundancies, and the NUJ is accusing the corporation's top
management of wilfully avoiding talks which could have averted the stoppage. A
further strike is due on Monday August 1. http://bit.ly/p0VM2P.
REMPLOY- Lobby board in Leicester to save jobs, about 1,000 grievance letters
alleging failure in the duty of care by Remploy’s chief executive, Tim
Matthews, for the organisation’s 2,800 disabled workers have been collected
by Unite, the country’s largest trade union; the GMB; and Community
http://bit.ly/pLUDF8.
Bromley Unison reps leave to join UNITE - This includes newly elected NEC
member Kathy Smith, "Faced with the biggest onslaught against our jobs, wages
and conditions in our history we had a right to expect that every ounce of
energy of the union would be used to fight the employers. However in Bromley,
Unison nationally has put in massive resources, but not to fight the employer
and organise the members, but to effectively strangle the rights of the branch
and its members and its ability to resist the cuts. http://bit.ly/q1OqLi.
Major strike is raging in the Mangistau oblast in the west of Kazakhstan, where
at its height; up to 16,000 workers in the oil industry have been on
strike.Workers faced with jailings, intimidation and brutal repression.
Solidarity urgently needed http://bit.ly/pMVwIZ.
DIARY
23 July
March and rally to save Bombardier:
Saturday 23 July, 10:00 am, Bass’s Recreation Ground
NSSN meeting after the rally:
THE FLOWERPOT
23-25 King St, Derby DE1 3DZ 1:00pm,
http://bit.ly/pdeDcO.
Noon Demo & rally against welfare cuts!
Assemble on The Level, Brighton
http://on.fb.me/rm7BM7.
YouthRock4Jobs gig in Nuneaton .07931455391
http://nuneatonagainstcuts.wordpress.com
25 July
Public meeting: Our NHS is not for sale! 7pm
Friends Meeting House, Ship Street, Brighton
How we can unite to stop the government's cuts and privatisation plans.
Speakers from health workers' trade unions and professional bodies, Keep Our
NHS Public and workers involved in the June 30 strike.
26 July
Lobby the council Communities need council libraries!
1pm, at County Hall, Penrhyn Road, Kingston
www.saveourservic.es
27 July
Lobby of Cambridge City Council
1pm. Meet at Guildhall, Cambridge
www.cambridgeshireagainstthecuts.org.uk/
30 July
12 - 3pm Croydon Town Centre, North End
GMB to join UK UNCUT protest in CROYDON over cuts and tax dodging at SOUTHERN
CROSS HOMES http://bit.ly/nK9wA9.
11 Sep
Assemble 1.30pm Friends Meeting Hse, Euston Rd, NW1 for a rally before our
protest. http://bit.ly/qVuOAW.
March for Jobs
Youth Fight for Jobs is marching from Jarrow to London, starting on 1 October
2011. This is on the 75 anniversary of the Jarrow Crusade, when 200 unemployed
workers took a similar route to raise awareness of mass unemployment.
jarrowmarch11.com.
Some NSSN videos:
http://bit.ly/jP96UU
http://bit.ly/nhMsmP
Join, Get involved, Affilate
http://www.stopcuts.net/affiliate.htm
info@shopstewards.net
07952 283 558
Tuesday, 12 July 2011
Dissertation - Some ideas class concioiusness or arts to mobilise?
NOTES after supervision and some reading..
Maybe something on
How could we or have we used arts to represent resistance? (Is represent the wrong word? Mobilse, develop, interrogate)
Look at work in the past 6 months:
Student
March 26th
June 30th
NSSN
or
In what ways does arts raise class conciousness?
Maybe focusign on class, consumption of arts or use of art ?
See Peierr Boduire..
Maybe look at work of one artists?
Suz Muna
Dennis Rudd
Read art as a weapon
http://libcom.org/history/art-weapon-frans-seiwert-cologne-progressives-martyn-everett
Surrealist manefesto..
The art of interruption - john roberts
Photography turned experience of working class into authenticity rather than expressions of class conciousness.
Maybe something on
How could we or have we used arts to represent resistance? (Is represent the wrong word? Mobilse, develop, interrogate)
Look at work in the past 6 months:
Student
March 26th
June 30th
NSSN
or
In what ways does arts raise class conciousness?
Maybe focusign on class, consumption of arts or use of art ?
See Peierr Boduire..
Maybe look at work of one artists?
Suz Muna
Dennis Rudd
Read art as a weapon
http://libcom.org/history/art-weapon-frans-seiwert-cologne-progressives-martyn-everett
Surrealist manefesto..
The art of interruption - john roberts
Photography turned experience of working class into authenticity rather than expressions of class conciousness.
Monday, 11 July 2011
Preparing for supervision
Was do to have a supervision and preparing for most of the day.. so where am I now?
Inbetween I went for some books and owe over £35 - really don't know how that happened??! Thought there was a small fine not that much! Fuck -
I wanted and found interesting Qualative research methods with text, image and sound - G Gaskel
Chapters on Group and individual interviewing, eposodic and narrative - all of which would have been interesting and relevant.
Video and photography as research documents..
Conversation and TALK (pg 191) as 'complex forms of social interaction'
G Rose - visual methodologies
'important means within which social life happens' does life happen within images??
Chapter 11 - Making photos not found images - difference of analysing the past data to creating data.
Notes to self - I created data in the process and opened up some hidden data from the past.
TO SCAN THESE CHAPTERS... and parts of the book: The postgraduate research handbook Wisker, G (2008)
A few weeks back in planning for this supervision I asked for feedback on the three elements that I handed in which Anna gave me this morning in writing and then with notes and questions which take another layer, add another layer. Something for evaluation and development.
1. Production work multimedia workshop = presentation?
What are your thoughts on this process and how it enhanced the overall production?
2. Production report
How in practice do you think this worked? And how would I do this differently?
3. What will happen now to this piece and how could it gain wider circulation?
-----------------------------------
What is the explicit question being asked and whats implicit within that?
annoyingly i have lost a piece of paper where I was looking at the question
How can arts be used in representing resistance in challenging capitalism in a crisis?
- representation of what
- or is is more developing or mainting resistance
- or exploring the possibility of the future
- do we just show the darkness or the light of possibility?
-
-------------
what are my ongoing obsessions
liveness
conversation
collaberation
cons
Inbetween I went for some books and owe over £35 - really don't know how that happened??! Thought there was a small fine not that much! Fuck -
I wanted and found interesting Qualative research methods with text, image and sound - G Gaskel
Chapters on Group and individual interviewing, eposodic and narrative - all of which would have been interesting and relevant.
Video and photography as research documents..
Conversation and TALK (pg 191) as 'complex forms of social interaction'
G Rose - visual methodologies
'important means within which social life happens' does life happen within images??
Chapter 11 - Making photos not found images - difference of analysing the past data to creating data.
Notes to self - I created data in the process and opened up some hidden data from the past.
TO SCAN THESE CHAPTERS... and parts of the book: The postgraduate research handbook Wisker, G (2008)
A few weeks back in planning for this supervision I asked for feedback on the three elements that I handed in which Anna gave me this morning in writing and then with notes and questions which take another layer, add another layer. Something for evaluation and development.
1. Production work multimedia workshop = presentation?
What are your thoughts on this process and how it enhanced the overall production?
2. Production report
How in practice do you think this worked? And how would I do this differently?
3. What will happen now to this piece and how could it gain wider circulation?
-----------------------------------
What is the explicit question being asked and whats implicit within that?
annoyingly i have lost a piece of paper where I was looking at the question
How can arts be used in representing resistance in challenging capitalism in a crisis?
- representation of what
- or is is more developing or mainting resistance
- or exploring the possibility of the future
- do we just show the darkness or the light of possibility?
-
-------------
what are my ongoing obsessions
liveness
conversation
collaberation
cons
Report handed in June - work in progress
Something I have been up to..
This was the report I handed in with a work in progress of the 47 and audio recording of a presentation to cultural memory students.
INTRODUCTION
In producing and developing my production element of the MA I have continued to tackle issues of form, content, context and audience. The project aims to explore and expose the relevance of the Liverpool 47 surcharged councillors (1983-1987) on today, though other areas of conflict, investigation and interrogation do surface and layered within this. The video is a collaborative effort with Lisa Lonsdale who I met in Liverpool in 1987, a student, activist and then ongoing theatre collaborator. We both work better with at least one other person; it gives ongoing guidance, skills sharing, reflection and energy. Lisa was 8 & half months pregnant when we shot the majority of the interviews.
This report accompanies a 46-minute video work in progress, the first 21 minutes includes some visual work apart from the interviewees, there is much more to do. There is also a full audio recording of a presentation and discussion within the Digital Gallery with Cultural memory students & a 26 second shot of students watching the work. The latter process is part of my desire to engage in discussion and consider feedback around the work. It also pushes me to expose myself, as that is also a personal challenge. I was aware this huge piece of controversial working class history, was going to be an enormous project, and not one that could be completed for this MA. However this MA has given me the opportunity to begin this with an ongoing experimentation of forms, whilst also considering the ideological debates around objectivity, purpose of art, relationships between artefacts, content, context and audiences.
OBJECTIVITY
In a book written at the time ‘Liverpool a city that dared to fight’, Mulhern & Taaffe (1987:Preface) reflect on how and why they have created a book that intended not to narrate the period but bring to the surface the process that were rarely expressed. It does not intend to be what is often referred to as an objective work, which denies editorial construction & commercial context.
In the same spirit, but with different mediums, I too acknowledge there is no attempt to play at balancing arguments. However there are responses to the period and to the mediation of the struggle clearly within the work, if it were not for that mainstream mediation and ban from office for the 47, the subject is unlikely to have been chose and needed to be re-aired in such a way. Several interviewees reflect on the media representations. I have chosen to produce an audio visual work as I better engage and express ideas in those medium as well as playing with written words into sound, images, process.
PURPOSE
In Orwell’s ‘Why I write’ (1984 p21), he argues that he wrote, not to “produce some kind of work of art but, “because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention … but I could not do the work. If it were not an aesthetic experience” (Orwell: 1984:8). He uses ‘Homage to Catalonia’, as an example ‘it contains a long chapter, full of newspaper quotations. Defending trotskyists who were accused of plotting with Franco.” (Orwell: 1984:8) Challenged for this chapter his response was, “I happened to know, what very few people in England know, what very few people were allowed to know…If I had not been angry about that I should have never written the book’. (Orwell:1984:8)
The need to draw attention to a past or lie, also expresses itself within the exhibition, ‘News International Wapping – 25 Years on: The workers story’. It is also within the same period of Liverpool 47 and relates to job cuts and trade union rights but also the concentration of media by one person and the potential impact on public memory and opinion. (APPENDIX 1)
FORM
The form of the project chosen, documentary, was one potential medium that could be more accessible to a wider audience than a nonfiction book or an installation. Though the space, experience of movement, opportunity to converse in the installation environment that I had created was important element of ‘liveness’ and interactivity.
This ‘documentary’ follows some conventions of a traditional documentary, with head and shoulder shots. However they are always on screen, those who narrate are never hidden, showing the constructive nature of the work. There is also the opportunity to look at each of them, their visual expressions and see a little of whom they are. Allowing the viewers time to see them, like the time given on screen to begin to represent and explore their part in the dispute with the Tory government, and later the Leadership of the labour party and others. It has become a repeated motif within the film, boxed, screened, somewhat contained because of the medium, the history, the ongoing challenge of providing an audience with so much information and maintain interest.
The expectations of how a documentary is constructed and delivered is steeped within the development of documentary form which has unhealthy links to observing ‘subjects’ as victims and some voyeurism, despite attempts to develop the form and sub categories within it. If I called this an artist documentary, would the piece then become acceptable as it stands? Why so? What does calling something an’ Artist’ work allow for and why?
Looking through some of the identified categories of documentary, which Nicholas B discusses (2001 pg 121), there are elements of the work and process that could be considered as ‘participative’ with an ongoing engagement in space, interviewees, access & contents. With the use of a formal interview process, to create different accounts of one story & aim to explore ‘our’ history not ‘a’ history. There is a strong intention of ‘expository’ documentary that aims to access memory and representations that are not in the mass media or archives. It also contains a huge amount of the ‘reflexive’ style, drawing ‘our attention to our assumptions and expectations about what documentary form itself…(&) world around us’. (Nichols: 2001:121)
REPRESENTATIONS & IDENTITY
Those taking part are mainly female; this was another key aim to create a project that better reflected those involved. Making the invisible, visible. The characters are mainly working class backgrounds, with none of usual business, academic, paid experts to the subject brought in to comment. I have chosen ‘experts’ as those who took part in the struggle. The intention was to expose how many working class people took control of their lives and began to create a world which could better provide for them and the wider society, one based on need.
Woodward K (1997 pg14) suggests that, ‘Representations produce meanings through which we can make sense of our experiences…and create possibilities of what we are and what we become”. Though I agree with the first part, I could not say that this work, or several cultural products alone could be the sole influencing factor on believing a set of ideas or a media product. It could be how their pensions are being cut or the proposed NHS cuts. Often material conditions or changes have the biggest influence, though not solely.
Woodward further suggests ‘representation’ as a key area of study and consideration, came to the fore after ‘ideologies’ were moved away from in the late 1970’s; a question arises, is that due the Tories winning the election under Thatcher at the same time the collapse of Communism (Stalinism) in East Germany and the move rightwards of the Labour Party? Did academics, along with huge swathes of the population and particularly politicians feel that socialism was not a solution? Or that economic determinism, which was often preached without a dialectical relationship to complex ideas and experiences by some Marxists, was thus an insufficient theoretical tools to analyse and make use of in these circumstances? Perhaps.
COLLABERATION
To add further visual layers, we requested photographs from Dave Sinclair who was one of the few photographers of the time who had access to most of the events and people. Dave is a paid photographer but has given us access to a huge archive of photographs and his personal memories around them, for no cost. It would have cost around £80 per shot for 5-second usage (£1000 approximately for us). I have offered to do work in lieu for him but he has declined, for him and his beliefs this collection need to be shared more widely. His online collection assisted in us accessing his work and making choices as well as displaying this in the installations. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/dave_sinclair_liverpool_photos/sets/72157603820320816/)
The texture, layers and composition of his work add hugely to the piece both in terms of aesthetics but also integrity of someone there. They are black and white and that feature very much encourages the audience into looking back. They also begin to show who else was involved at the time, which was a much wider grouping of people than those interviewed, or those who were councillors and that is hugely important as it is also about the representation of the participation and democratisation of the city & wider movement in that period.
In addition to the photographs from Dave Sinclair, I approached Suzanne Muna, a housing trade unionist & socialist, who was also suspended by Unison nationally for a cartoon leaflet she created for a conference which was challenging the leadership for not allowing some resolutions onto the agenda for conference to hear and debate. Suzanne is also an artist, though decided many years ago not to be paid for any of her work, as she told me that would compromise her. Her work was chosen after seeing it for many years and getting to know some of what she and 3 others went through in that particular union. Photographs of her collection are online which are moving and human collection. Being online made it easier for us to choose the work in advance and discuss how it could fit in as all three of us had competing priorities.
(http://www.squashdonkey.co.uk/artworksalist.htm)
The union theme developed after meeting with her to see the originals and also discuss elements of the installation that some had seen and many had not. One item I had left in the room was a union mug, which had a moulding dirty teabag, obviously important at a point but had now become something that was decaying and not allowing the mug to be used as it could or should be, a critique of several trade unions at the present time most of which have strong financial and affiliations to the Labour Party.
Her work is multimedia, created with low cost materials and includes newspaper quotes, an ongoing critique of the mass media. It is deeply critical of the current capitalist system and the way that operates, whilst also suggesting alternatives. Suzanne's work add a dual purpose and role, aesthetically but also in her as human spirit and fighting actions.
With the aim to provide a more uplifting experience for the subjects and audiences, the final question I asked of interviews, what did you get from being involved? This was in order to end the interviews positively and with some reflection on personal and collective gains to create a layer or possibility of what happens when someone gets involved in a dispute or movement. Most interviewees reflected on the process as uplifting and enjoyable. I did want not want to ‘take from them’, without facilitating some positive reflections to end with.
On a recent visit to the TATE Modern (May 15th 2011) I looked at one photographic exhibition called ‘BURKE & NORFOLK’ in Afghanistan. My initial reaction was distaste at the ‘prettiness’ of the images, the brightness, luscious colours, lack of visual ideas that reflected what was and has gone on. This led me to watch a video accompanying the exhibition where he argued that beauty was a tactic, ‘people are tricked into engaging”. (TATE: May 2011) The conscious tactic he used chills me, not only as something disingenuous and frankly limiting his expectations of an audience. Was I, were we, trying to make pretty something that had within it the huge forces of the state and internal collusion with personalised memories?
REFLEXIVITY & Circle of evaluation & feedback
One part of the ongoing evaluation of the process and production was to work within the AHS Digital gallery, perfectly positioned at the main entrance of one of the largest university buildings. I purposefully stayed in space 4-7 hours a day to explore space, experiment with additional work, continue project, meet collaborators, invite people in and chat. This is an important part of process to be there, observe, engage, discuss, expose self and work. In addition a presentation to cultural memory students supported this process. (APPENDIX 2)
The presentation & discussion process assisted bringing to air the ideas around public and private memory and what that might mean to an individual or society. Silverstone (1999 pg48) argues, ‘with the decline of oral culture we no longer need, ourselves, collectively to remember.” And that, ‘the media have the power to define the past’. (Silverstone: 1999:48).
This could hold some truth of how the written word is valued, its solidity, fixed, exchangeable, and sellable. The oral process less fixed and but clearly the tradition does continue. Just in terms of political and trade union activity I am involved in weekly meets between once to five times a week. These are important to women, though I regularly observe they are more at ease in a conversation or in the action of doing than the saying, so many men continue to dominate the spaces. I now purposefully try to contribute but in my own style, and with observations and experiences and possible suggestions, to show that it also ok without huge vocabulary or the ability to recall related historical events. I have, though, also continued to use a blog, as an archive and a small memory for me, as I have a very poor working memory, which impacts on an ability to recall information short term and requires multiple approaches to learning and engagement for ideas and facts to imprint themselves. Hand in hand, I attempt to develop a memory but also work without one.
TECHNOLOGY
The opportunity to film, edit and research this project has much been made easier, with the use of lower cost technology. It does not, however, determine the content of the work, or the ability to use the technology that requires critical consideration, technical learning, reflection and practice. The issue of distribution is still commercially restrictive though some models of distributing campaign documentaries have developed such as Mclibel that used a campaign model that could suit this work.
Without us needing or demanding for something, we might not have the technologies or know what to do with them. As Marx is quoted in Lister et Al, ‘They are organs of the brain, created by the human hand’. Lister et Al (2003 pg 191)
Only one piece of quirky, music has been chosen, so far, (royalty free) to have some lighter, warmer, lift for the audience. With the overall intention to express some processes and open up the possibility of ways of participating or leading struggles for democratic and fairer way of living and acting within this world, whilst not leaving them paralysed by the burden of the past.
I’ll be honest and say I am not completely happy with what I have done so far, it’s fighting within forms but it is a work in progress. And on reflection, I rarely like anything I create, though I love the work of those I collaborate with, I just know I need to do it!
So What Next? (In summary)
1. Review structure and missing content with collaborator and also subjects. Share feedback made so far and discuss suggestion. From that decide on cutaways list and shot list to add more moving images to the work and several visual motifs.
2. Look at more music for soundtrack and discuss with others to look for a composer for all. (Mainstream work would generally cost?)
3. Create a distribution strategy and timeline.
4. Review the budget and look at a fundraising model and strategy to resource the project.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lewis, H (1990) Dada turns Red, Edinborough, Edinborough Press
Benjamin, W (1977) Author as Producer
Nichols, B (2001) “What types of documentaries are there? in An Introduction to Documentary. Boomington Ind, Indiana University Press
Orwell, G. (1984) Why I write, London, Penguin.
Pryluck, C (2005) “Ultimately we are all outsiders: The ethics of documentary filmmaking” in Rosenthal, A & J Corner (eds). New Challenges for Documentary (2nd Edition), Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Rabinger, M (1997) Directing techniques and aesthetics Massachusetts Focal press
Silverstone R (1999) Why study the media? London, Sage
Taaffee, P & Mulhern T. (1988) Liverpool a city that dared to fight, London, Fortress.
Woodward (1997) ‘Concepts of Identity & Difference’, in K Woodward (ed.) Identity & Difference. London Sage
Martin Lister. Jon Dovey, Seth Giddings, Iain Grant & Kieran Kelly (2003) New Media: A Critical Introduction. London. Rutledge
Williams, G (2010) Shafted: The Media, The Miners Strike & the aftermath London, Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom
Films
Vogel, K (2011) Burke and Norfolk, video loop. Tate Modern, London
Exhibition
Tate Modern – Burke & Norfolk: Photographs from the war in Afghanistan May 2011
Websites
Luxonline.org.uk/themes/documentary.html (19.5.2011)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dave_sinclair_liverpool_photos/sets/72157603820320816/(Last accessed 23.5.2011)
http://www.squashdonkey.co.uk/artworksalist.htm (last accessed 23.5.2011)
ORAL?
In additional I have attended meetings of trade unionists, anti cuts campaigners, socialists 2-6 times a week that are part of the huge and ongoing oral process of exchanging ideas and develop process. I could not begin to name and note which ones have influenced this work but the combination of them all and the ongoing need for collective discussions and actions to make change.
APPENDIX 1: WAPPING
In 1986 Murdoch, the owner of several main stream newspapers planned to secretly change the location of the press to Wapping, over 5,000 jobs were to be lost in this change but it also changed and continued to determinate the potential for a democratic press and important trade union branch … It was London based dispute with a strong trade union membership, though some trade union leaders and unions choose to hold back the dispute with the EEPTU members took the jobs in the new plant. Eric Hammond the then leader of the EEPTU is said to have “boasted in his autobiography of his extensive liaison and collaboration’ (Exhibition programme: 2011:18)
The dispute and the need of those who were involved, several who were at the exhibition on the day I attended, wanted more people to know about what happened, and lots of discussions took place. The venue itself was full to bursting with banners, papers, write-ups, posters and some older merchandise for sale.
APPENDIX 2:
A selection of the feedback given:
Unsure it was past till part way through
Good to have visuals, helped memory
Good not just to have mainstream archives, ‘This is more powerful, people involved’
Against representation of mad left
Is there something about Liverpool? Community?
Was intention to rep history another way?
Why H&S shots of interviews? Why are you not there?
Consider Neil Kinnock for interview?
Who owns the work and uses it?
Could see a version like Dagenham Girls, mainstreamed
How this has come about – process of production cheaper, social media for marketing?
Begin with mass mediated story,
Liked music – massive attack 1980’s
Is it an installation or film?
It reminds me of that time, I was there..
If not completed soon, it will be out of time, relevance?
I see it as your process, the past and then this wall
Introduction confusing
Like the water in the intro
Emotion elements more engaging – possible hook to start
This was the report I handed in with a work in progress of the 47 and audio recording of a presentation to cultural memory students.
INTRODUCTION
In producing and developing my production element of the MA I have continued to tackle issues of form, content, context and audience. The project aims to explore and expose the relevance of the Liverpool 47 surcharged councillors (1983-1987) on today, though other areas of conflict, investigation and interrogation do surface and layered within this. The video is a collaborative effort with Lisa Lonsdale who I met in Liverpool in 1987, a student, activist and then ongoing theatre collaborator. We both work better with at least one other person; it gives ongoing guidance, skills sharing, reflection and energy. Lisa was 8 & half months pregnant when we shot the majority of the interviews.
This report accompanies a 46-minute video work in progress, the first 21 minutes includes some visual work apart from the interviewees, there is much more to do. There is also a full audio recording of a presentation and discussion within the Digital Gallery with Cultural memory students & a 26 second shot of students watching the work. The latter process is part of my desire to engage in discussion and consider feedback around the work. It also pushes me to expose myself, as that is also a personal challenge. I was aware this huge piece of controversial working class history, was going to be an enormous project, and not one that could be completed for this MA. However this MA has given me the opportunity to begin this with an ongoing experimentation of forms, whilst also considering the ideological debates around objectivity, purpose of art, relationships between artefacts, content, context and audiences.
OBJECTIVITY
In a book written at the time ‘Liverpool a city that dared to fight’, Mulhern & Taaffe (1987:Preface) reflect on how and why they have created a book that intended not to narrate the period but bring to the surface the process that were rarely expressed. It does not intend to be what is often referred to as an objective work, which denies editorial construction & commercial context.
In the same spirit, but with different mediums, I too acknowledge there is no attempt to play at balancing arguments. However there are responses to the period and to the mediation of the struggle clearly within the work, if it were not for that mainstream mediation and ban from office for the 47, the subject is unlikely to have been chose and needed to be re-aired in such a way. Several interviewees reflect on the media representations. I have chosen to produce an audio visual work as I better engage and express ideas in those medium as well as playing with written words into sound, images, process.
PURPOSE
In Orwell’s ‘Why I write’ (1984 p21), he argues that he wrote, not to “produce some kind of work of art but, “because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention … but I could not do the work. If it were not an aesthetic experience” (Orwell: 1984:8). He uses ‘Homage to Catalonia’, as an example ‘it contains a long chapter, full of newspaper quotations. Defending trotskyists who were accused of plotting with Franco.” (Orwell: 1984:8) Challenged for this chapter his response was, “I happened to know, what very few people in England know, what very few people were allowed to know…If I had not been angry about that I should have never written the book’. (Orwell:1984:8)
The need to draw attention to a past or lie, also expresses itself within the exhibition, ‘News International Wapping – 25 Years on: The workers story’. It is also within the same period of Liverpool 47 and relates to job cuts and trade union rights but also the concentration of media by one person and the potential impact on public memory and opinion. (APPENDIX 1)
FORM
The form of the project chosen, documentary, was one potential medium that could be more accessible to a wider audience than a nonfiction book or an installation. Though the space, experience of movement, opportunity to converse in the installation environment that I had created was important element of ‘liveness’ and interactivity.
This ‘documentary’ follows some conventions of a traditional documentary, with head and shoulder shots. However they are always on screen, those who narrate are never hidden, showing the constructive nature of the work. There is also the opportunity to look at each of them, their visual expressions and see a little of whom they are. Allowing the viewers time to see them, like the time given on screen to begin to represent and explore their part in the dispute with the Tory government, and later the Leadership of the labour party and others. It has become a repeated motif within the film, boxed, screened, somewhat contained because of the medium, the history, the ongoing challenge of providing an audience with so much information and maintain interest.
The expectations of how a documentary is constructed and delivered is steeped within the development of documentary form which has unhealthy links to observing ‘subjects’ as victims and some voyeurism, despite attempts to develop the form and sub categories within it. If I called this an artist documentary, would the piece then become acceptable as it stands? Why so? What does calling something an’ Artist’ work allow for and why?
Looking through some of the identified categories of documentary, which Nicholas B discusses (2001 pg 121), there are elements of the work and process that could be considered as ‘participative’ with an ongoing engagement in space, interviewees, access & contents. With the use of a formal interview process, to create different accounts of one story & aim to explore ‘our’ history not ‘a’ history. There is a strong intention of ‘expository’ documentary that aims to access memory and representations that are not in the mass media or archives. It also contains a huge amount of the ‘reflexive’ style, drawing ‘our attention to our assumptions and expectations about what documentary form itself…(&) world around us’. (Nichols: 2001:121)
REPRESENTATIONS & IDENTITY
Those taking part are mainly female; this was another key aim to create a project that better reflected those involved. Making the invisible, visible. The characters are mainly working class backgrounds, with none of usual business, academic, paid experts to the subject brought in to comment. I have chosen ‘experts’ as those who took part in the struggle. The intention was to expose how many working class people took control of their lives and began to create a world which could better provide for them and the wider society, one based on need.
Woodward K (1997 pg14) suggests that, ‘Representations produce meanings through which we can make sense of our experiences…and create possibilities of what we are and what we become”. Though I agree with the first part, I could not say that this work, or several cultural products alone could be the sole influencing factor on believing a set of ideas or a media product. It could be how their pensions are being cut or the proposed NHS cuts. Often material conditions or changes have the biggest influence, though not solely.
Woodward further suggests ‘representation’ as a key area of study and consideration, came to the fore after ‘ideologies’ were moved away from in the late 1970’s; a question arises, is that due the Tories winning the election under Thatcher at the same time the collapse of Communism (Stalinism) in East Germany and the move rightwards of the Labour Party? Did academics, along with huge swathes of the population and particularly politicians feel that socialism was not a solution? Or that economic determinism, which was often preached without a dialectical relationship to complex ideas and experiences by some Marxists, was thus an insufficient theoretical tools to analyse and make use of in these circumstances? Perhaps.
COLLABERATION
To add further visual layers, we requested photographs from Dave Sinclair who was one of the few photographers of the time who had access to most of the events and people. Dave is a paid photographer but has given us access to a huge archive of photographs and his personal memories around them, for no cost. It would have cost around £80 per shot for 5-second usage (£1000 approximately for us). I have offered to do work in lieu for him but he has declined, for him and his beliefs this collection need to be shared more widely. His online collection assisted in us accessing his work and making choices as well as displaying this in the installations. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/dave_sinclair_liverpool_photos/sets/72157603820320816/)
The texture, layers and composition of his work add hugely to the piece both in terms of aesthetics but also integrity of someone there. They are black and white and that feature very much encourages the audience into looking back. They also begin to show who else was involved at the time, which was a much wider grouping of people than those interviewed, or those who were councillors and that is hugely important as it is also about the representation of the participation and democratisation of the city & wider movement in that period.
In addition to the photographs from Dave Sinclair, I approached Suzanne Muna, a housing trade unionist & socialist, who was also suspended by Unison nationally for a cartoon leaflet she created for a conference which was challenging the leadership for not allowing some resolutions onto the agenda for conference to hear and debate. Suzanne is also an artist, though decided many years ago not to be paid for any of her work, as she told me that would compromise her. Her work was chosen after seeing it for many years and getting to know some of what she and 3 others went through in that particular union. Photographs of her collection are online which are moving and human collection. Being online made it easier for us to choose the work in advance and discuss how it could fit in as all three of us had competing priorities.
(http://www.squashdonkey.co.uk/artworksalist.htm)
The union theme developed after meeting with her to see the originals and also discuss elements of the installation that some had seen and many had not. One item I had left in the room was a union mug, which had a moulding dirty teabag, obviously important at a point but had now become something that was decaying and not allowing the mug to be used as it could or should be, a critique of several trade unions at the present time most of which have strong financial and affiliations to the Labour Party.
Her work is multimedia, created with low cost materials and includes newspaper quotes, an ongoing critique of the mass media. It is deeply critical of the current capitalist system and the way that operates, whilst also suggesting alternatives. Suzanne's work add a dual purpose and role, aesthetically but also in her as human spirit and fighting actions.
With the aim to provide a more uplifting experience for the subjects and audiences, the final question I asked of interviews, what did you get from being involved? This was in order to end the interviews positively and with some reflection on personal and collective gains to create a layer or possibility of what happens when someone gets involved in a dispute or movement. Most interviewees reflected on the process as uplifting and enjoyable. I did want not want to ‘take from them’, without facilitating some positive reflections to end with.
On a recent visit to the TATE Modern (May 15th 2011) I looked at one photographic exhibition called ‘BURKE & NORFOLK’ in Afghanistan. My initial reaction was distaste at the ‘prettiness’ of the images, the brightness, luscious colours, lack of visual ideas that reflected what was and has gone on. This led me to watch a video accompanying the exhibition where he argued that beauty was a tactic, ‘people are tricked into engaging”. (TATE: May 2011) The conscious tactic he used chills me, not only as something disingenuous and frankly limiting his expectations of an audience. Was I, were we, trying to make pretty something that had within it the huge forces of the state and internal collusion with personalised memories?
REFLEXIVITY & Circle of evaluation & feedback
One part of the ongoing evaluation of the process and production was to work within the AHS Digital gallery, perfectly positioned at the main entrance of one of the largest university buildings. I purposefully stayed in space 4-7 hours a day to explore space, experiment with additional work, continue project, meet collaborators, invite people in and chat. This is an important part of process to be there, observe, engage, discuss, expose self and work. In addition a presentation to cultural memory students supported this process. (APPENDIX 2)
The presentation & discussion process assisted bringing to air the ideas around public and private memory and what that might mean to an individual or society. Silverstone (1999 pg48) argues, ‘with the decline of oral culture we no longer need, ourselves, collectively to remember.” And that, ‘the media have the power to define the past’. (Silverstone: 1999:48).
This could hold some truth of how the written word is valued, its solidity, fixed, exchangeable, and sellable. The oral process less fixed and but clearly the tradition does continue. Just in terms of political and trade union activity I am involved in weekly meets between once to five times a week. These are important to women, though I regularly observe they are more at ease in a conversation or in the action of doing than the saying, so many men continue to dominate the spaces. I now purposefully try to contribute but in my own style, and with observations and experiences and possible suggestions, to show that it also ok without huge vocabulary or the ability to recall related historical events. I have, though, also continued to use a blog, as an archive and a small memory for me, as I have a very poor working memory, which impacts on an ability to recall information short term and requires multiple approaches to learning and engagement for ideas and facts to imprint themselves. Hand in hand, I attempt to develop a memory but also work without one.
TECHNOLOGY
The opportunity to film, edit and research this project has much been made easier, with the use of lower cost technology. It does not, however, determine the content of the work, or the ability to use the technology that requires critical consideration, technical learning, reflection and practice. The issue of distribution is still commercially restrictive though some models of distributing campaign documentaries have developed such as Mclibel that used a campaign model that could suit this work.
Without us needing or demanding for something, we might not have the technologies or know what to do with them. As Marx is quoted in Lister et Al, ‘They are organs of the brain, created by the human hand’. Lister et Al (2003 pg 191)
Only one piece of quirky, music has been chosen, so far, (royalty free) to have some lighter, warmer, lift for the audience. With the overall intention to express some processes and open up the possibility of ways of participating or leading struggles for democratic and fairer way of living and acting within this world, whilst not leaving them paralysed by the burden of the past.
I’ll be honest and say I am not completely happy with what I have done so far, it’s fighting within forms but it is a work in progress. And on reflection, I rarely like anything I create, though I love the work of those I collaborate with, I just know I need to do it!
So What Next? (In summary)
1. Review structure and missing content with collaborator and also subjects. Share feedback made so far and discuss suggestion. From that decide on cutaways list and shot list to add more moving images to the work and several visual motifs.
2. Look at more music for soundtrack and discuss with others to look for a composer for all. (Mainstream work would generally cost?)
3. Create a distribution strategy and timeline.
4. Review the budget and look at a fundraising model and strategy to resource the project.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lewis, H (1990) Dada turns Red, Edinborough, Edinborough Press
Benjamin, W (1977) Author as Producer
Nichols, B (2001) “What types of documentaries are there? in An Introduction to Documentary. Boomington Ind, Indiana University Press
Orwell, G. (1984) Why I write, London, Penguin.
Pryluck, C (2005) “Ultimately we are all outsiders: The ethics of documentary filmmaking” in Rosenthal, A & J Corner (eds). New Challenges for Documentary (2nd Edition), Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Rabinger, M (1997) Directing techniques and aesthetics Massachusetts Focal press
Silverstone R (1999) Why study the media? London, Sage
Taaffee, P & Mulhern T. (1988) Liverpool a city that dared to fight, London, Fortress.
Woodward (1997) ‘Concepts of Identity & Difference’, in K Woodward (ed.) Identity & Difference. London Sage
Martin Lister. Jon Dovey, Seth Giddings, Iain Grant & Kieran Kelly (2003) New Media: A Critical Introduction. London. Rutledge
Williams, G (2010) Shafted: The Media, The Miners Strike & the aftermath London, Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom
Films
Vogel, K (2011) Burke and Norfolk, video loop. Tate Modern, London
Exhibition
Tate Modern – Burke & Norfolk: Photographs from the war in Afghanistan May 2011
Websites
Luxonline.org.uk/themes/documentary.html (19.5.2011)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dave_sinclair_liverpool_photos/sets/72157603820320816/(Last accessed 23.5.2011)
http://www.squashdonkey.co.uk/artworksalist.htm (last accessed 23.5.2011)
ORAL?
In additional I have attended meetings of trade unionists, anti cuts campaigners, socialists 2-6 times a week that are part of the huge and ongoing oral process of exchanging ideas and develop process. I could not begin to name and note which ones have influenced this work but the combination of them all and the ongoing need for collective discussions and actions to make change.
APPENDIX 1: WAPPING
In 1986 Murdoch, the owner of several main stream newspapers planned to secretly change the location of the press to Wapping, over 5,000 jobs were to be lost in this change but it also changed and continued to determinate the potential for a democratic press and important trade union branch … It was London based dispute with a strong trade union membership, though some trade union leaders and unions choose to hold back the dispute with the EEPTU members took the jobs in the new plant. Eric Hammond the then leader of the EEPTU is said to have “boasted in his autobiography of his extensive liaison and collaboration’ (Exhibition programme: 2011:18)
The dispute and the need of those who were involved, several who were at the exhibition on the day I attended, wanted more people to know about what happened, and lots of discussions took place. The venue itself was full to bursting with banners, papers, write-ups, posters and some older merchandise for sale.
APPENDIX 2:
A selection of the feedback given:
Unsure it was past till part way through
Good to have visuals, helped memory
Good not just to have mainstream archives, ‘This is more powerful, people involved’
Against representation of mad left
Is there something about Liverpool? Community?
Was intention to rep history another way?
Why H&S shots of interviews? Why are you not there?
Consider Neil Kinnock for interview?
Who owns the work and uses it?
Could see a version like Dagenham Girls, mainstreamed
How this has come about – process of production cheaper, social media for marketing?
Begin with mass mediated story,
Liked music – massive attack 1980’s
Is it an installation or film?
It reminds me of that time, I was there..
If not completed soon, it will be out of time, relevance?
I see it as your process, the past and then this wall
Introduction confusing
Like the water in the intro
Emotion elements more engaging – possible hook to start
Friday, 1 July 2011
NSSN Bulletin - Striking together (1st July)
Yesterday was an amazing day for the fight-back against pension cuts and
beyond! A demonstration of what can be achieved when the unions move into
action!
There were picket lines, lunch time rallies, walkouts, occupations and support
from unions not even officially on strike but desperate to be involved in some
way, despite the vile and vicious propaganda from the government & media, &
sadly those you would hope to gain support from. Mary Bousted, general
secretary of the ATL, won the biggest cheer at a rally yesterday with: "The
response of Ed Miliband has been a disgrace – he should be ashamed of
himself. If our strike is a mistake, what has he done to oppose this
devastating attack on our pensions? If the Opposition will not defend our
pensions, we will."
You would think from looking at most of the main stream press this we are not
supported or that very little happened, but to be honest it impossible for us
to report the all of the details in one bulletin! In terms of demonstrations
there were: 4,000 Brighton, 5,000 Birmingham, Manchester & Bristol, 3,000
Liverpool, 500 Ipswich, 800 Cardiff, Exeter & Truro, 300 Chester & York, 1,000
Glasgow, Southampton & Hull, 200 Southend, 600 Preston, 1500 Cambridge, 350
Reading, 550 Plymouth, 400 Doncaster, 100 Lincoln, 200 Derby, 700 Norwich,
30,000 London & many many more! More area reports will be added to the website
over the next week, please send in yours & details of follow up meetings &
actions.
In some areas the NSSN joined forces with local unions to organise demos and
rallies. Outside Central Hall Westminster NSSN speakers addressed the overflow
crowd. With a one –day warning shot across the bows of this millionaire
coalition government, now is the time to prepare to step up the fight.
Thousands of our leaflets, bulletins and postcards were given out; placards
were held high. Our message to develop a general strike was welcomed &
supported. Tomorrow the new NSSN Steering Committee will be making an
assessment of yesterdays action and discussing a lobby of the TUC on September
11th in London in order to help ratchet up the pressure on these leaders to
follow up the March 26th demo with bigger joint strike action in the autumn.
We would encourage unions, campaign groups etc to follow up meetings of what
next, if you have visited a new workplaces then re-visit and develop union and
community actions for the future. If you were not on strike this time, look at
how your union and workplace can take part in the future, invite a local
striker & donate to the hardship funds.
Over the last 5 months we have been involved in a huge amount of work,
organising & speaking union meetings & conferences, anti cuts campaigns and
organising events and publishing different leaflets, stickers & cards. The cost
of this work adds up and we are in much need of finances right now! Please
could you consider donating by affiliating individually or via your trades
council or union. £5 per individual or £25 minimum for branches and local
trades councils. Online: http://www.stopcuts.net/affiliate.htm or cheques made
payable to 'National Shop Stewards Network’ NSSN PO Box 54498, London E10 9DE
DISPUTES:
UCU London Southbank University took strike action to defend pay and conditions
29th June. Lobby Board of governors 14th July.
http://www.shopstewards.net/news.113.htm
RMT Strike ballot on First Devon and Cornwall for strike action and action
short of a strike in a dispute over the axing of essential staff transport.
http://www.rmt.org.uk/Templates/Internal.asp?NodeID=146966
UNITE to ballot workers for strike action at Centrica (Hull) over pay
http://tinyurl.com/67d4sf8
NHS UPDATE: http://www.stopcuts.net/news.51.htm
DATES FOR THE DIARY
Sat 2nd July Bournemouth & Poole Anticuts Coalition
10:15am Broadstone Library, 10 Story Lane, Poole, Dorset BH18
info@bpacc.net
North Tyneside Public Services Alliance
11am North Tyneside General Hospital, North Shields NE29
l.nelson@unison.co.uk
6:30pm Birmingham Against the Cuts open planning meeting, Unison Offices, 19th
Floor McClaren Building. B4 Planning meeting
Mon 4th
Save the Accord Centre, Parkhead Forge Shopping Centre, Duke Entrance 3pm
Tues 5th
5pm-6: 30pm Disabled People Against the Cuts (DPAC) Lobby of council house
meeting.
Other celebrations & protests as part of the campaign to save the NHS on its
birthday will take place in Stoke, Preston, Manchester, Birmingham,
Wolverhampton, South Tyneside, Bradford, London & South Sea, & more!
Wed 6th
7.30pm Brighton Stop the Cuts, King & Queen
7:30pm Handsworth Anti-Cuts Group public meeting, St Andrews Sports and
Community Centre
Thur 7th July
12 – Manchester Central Conf Centre, M2
Protest outside the NHS Confederation National Conference with Langsley
speaking! https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=101668313261415
7:30pm – Birmingham TUC meeting - rooms 3&4, Council House, B1
Fri 9th
Save Our NHS Day of Action. Nottingham SOS nottssos+doa@gmail.com
11th Sep – NSSN lobby TUC to actively develop national action against the
cuts! https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=222515987782045
Joint meeting of London NSSN, RMT, CWU, FBU - Trade Unions battle ConDem cuts:
Mon 18th 6pm Indian YMCA, 41 Fitzroy Square, W1T
Some of the strongest & most militant unions in London will come together to
discuss what we can do now to help get all our unions up for concerted action
to stop ALL cuts.
http://www.shopstewards.net/news.110.htm
JOIN AFFILIATE & GET INVOLVED
Email: info@shopstewards.net
Phone: 07952 283 558
http://www.shopstewards.net/index.htm
beyond! A demonstration of what can be achieved when the unions move into
action!
There were picket lines, lunch time rallies, walkouts, occupations and support
from unions not even officially on strike but desperate to be involved in some
way, despite the vile and vicious propaganda from the government & media, &
sadly those you would hope to gain support from. Mary Bousted, general
secretary of the ATL, won the biggest cheer at a rally yesterday with: "The
response of Ed Miliband has been a disgrace – he should be ashamed of
himself. If our strike is a mistake, what has he done to oppose this
devastating attack on our pensions? If the Opposition will not defend our
pensions, we will."
You would think from looking at most of the main stream press this we are not
supported or that very little happened, but to be honest it impossible for us
to report the all of the details in one bulletin! In terms of demonstrations
there were: 4,000 Brighton, 5,000 Birmingham, Manchester & Bristol, 3,000
Liverpool, 500 Ipswich, 800 Cardiff, Exeter & Truro, 300 Chester & York, 1,000
Glasgow, Southampton & Hull, 200 Southend, 600 Preston, 1500 Cambridge, 350
Reading, 550 Plymouth, 400 Doncaster, 100 Lincoln, 200 Derby, 700 Norwich,
30,000 London & many many more! More area reports will be added to the website
over the next week, please send in yours & details of follow up meetings &
actions.
In some areas the NSSN joined forces with local unions to organise demos and
rallies. Outside Central Hall Westminster NSSN speakers addressed the overflow
crowd. With a one –day warning shot across the bows of this millionaire
coalition government, now is the time to prepare to step up the fight.
Thousands of our leaflets, bulletins and postcards were given out; placards
were held high. Our message to develop a general strike was welcomed &
supported. Tomorrow the new NSSN Steering Committee will be making an
assessment of yesterdays action and discussing a lobby of the TUC on September
11th in London in order to help ratchet up the pressure on these leaders to
follow up the March 26th demo with bigger joint strike action in the autumn.
We would encourage unions, campaign groups etc to follow up meetings of what
next, if you have visited a new workplaces then re-visit and develop union and
community actions for the future. If you were not on strike this time, look at
how your union and workplace can take part in the future, invite a local
striker & donate to the hardship funds.
Over the last 5 months we have been involved in a huge amount of work,
organising & speaking union meetings & conferences, anti cuts campaigns and
organising events and publishing different leaflets, stickers & cards. The cost
of this work adds up and we are in much need of finances right now! Please
could you consider donating by affiliating individually or via your trades
council or union. £5 per individual or £25 minimum for branches and local
trades councils. Online: http://www.stopcuts.net/affiliate.htm or cheques made
payable to 'National Shop Stewards Network’ NSSN PO Box 54498, London E10 9DE
DISPUTES:
UCU London Southbank University took strike action to defend pay and conditions
29th June. Lobby Board of governors 14th July.
http://www.shopstewards.net/news.113.htm
RMT Strike ballot on First Devon and Cornwall for strike action and action
short of a strike in a dispute over the axing of essential staff transport.
http://www.rmt.org.uk/Templates/Internal.asp?NodeID=146966
UNITE to ballot workers for strike action at Centrica (Hull) over pay
http://tinyurl.com/67d4sf8
NHS UPDATE: http://www.stopcuts.net/news.51.htm
DATES FOR THE DIARY
Sat 2nd July Bournemouth & Poole Anticuts Coalition
10:15am Broadstone Library, 10 Story Lane, Poole, Dorset BH18
info@bpacc.net
North Tyneside Public Services Alliance
11am North Tyneside General Hospital, North Shields NE29
l.nelson@unison.co.uk
6:30pm Birmingham Against the Cuts open planning meeting, Unison Offices, 19th
Floor McClaren Building. B4 Planning meeting
Mon 4th
Save the Accord Centre, Parkhead Forge Shopping Centre, Duke Entrance 3pm
Tues 5th
5pm-6: 30pm Disabled People Against the Cuts (DPAC) Lobby of council house
meeting.
Other celebrations & protests as part of the campaign to save the NHS on its
birthday will take place in Stoke, Preston, Manchester, Birmingham,
Wolverhampton, South Tyneside, Bradford, London & South Sea, & more!
Wed 6th
7.30pm Brighton Stop the Cuts, King & Queen
7:30pm Handsworth Anti-Cuts Group public meeting, St Andrews Sports and
Community Centre
Thur 7th July
12 – Manchester Central Conf Centre, M2
Protest outside the NHS Confederation National Conference with Langsley
speaking! https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=101668313261415
7:30pm – Birmingham TUC meeting - rooms 3&4, Council House, B1
Fri 9th
Save Our NHS Day of Action. Nottingham SOS nottssos+doa@gmail.com
11th Sep – NSSN lobby TUC to actively develop national action against the
cuts! https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=222515987782045
Joint meeting of London NSSN, RMT, CWU, FBU - Trade Unions battle ConDem cuts:
Mon 18th 6pm Indian YMCA, 41 Fitzroy Square, W1T
Some of the strongest & most militant unions in London will come together to
discuss what we can do now to help get all our unions up for concerted action
to stop ALL cuts.
http://www.shopstewards.net/news.110.htm
JOIN AFFILIATE & GET INVOLVED
Email: info@shopstewards.net
Phone: 07952 283 558
http://www.shopstewards.net/index.htm
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