The New Dark Age

CONTENTS:

NEWS

1. Housmans sale continues…
2. A request for volunteers with experience of organising events
3. Meeting room available for up to 12 people

EVENTS

4. (film screening – British premiere)
‘Chomsky & Company’
France, 2008, 127 mins
Saturday 7th March – 5.30pm

5. (book event & talk)
‘Cranks and Revolutions’ with Mark Gold
Wednesday 11thMarch – 7pm

6. (charity art auction)
Art Auction for Gaza
Saturday 14thMarch – 2pm

7. (book event & talk)
‘Politics & Paranoia’ with Robin Ramsay
Saturday 14thMarch – 5pm

8. (book event & talk)
‘Unmasking the State: A Rough Guide to Real Democracy’ with Paul Feldman
Wednesday 18thMarch – 7pm

9. (party & book launch)
Miners’ Strike 25th Anniversary Party
Saturday 21st March – 6.30pm

10. (book event & talk)
‘Unlocking Democracy – celebrating 20 years of Charter 88’
Wednesday 25th March  – 7pm

11. (book event & talk)
Nick Davies – ‘Flat Earth News’
Wednesday 1st April  – 7pm

12. Forthcoming in April 2009

BOOKS

13. ‘Can I Bring My Own Gun? An Israeli soldier’s story’
by Seth Freedman

NEWS

1. Housmans sale continues…

The Housmans sale continues with a huge range of £1 second-hand titles from the now sadly defunct Porcupine Books, and also many newer titles being cleared at half price. Come along for a browse and pick up a bargain!

2. A request for volunteers with experience of organising events

This year 5 Caledonian Road will be celebrating its 50th birthday in it’s Peace House incarnation, and we are planning to have a big party to celebrate. If you think you could help in organising this event, please contact Nik at nik@housmans.com. Thank you.

3. Meeting room available for up to 12 people

Housmans Bookshop is now in a position to offer a meeting room to sympathetic organisations. The room comfortably seats up to 12 people and is situated in a central location with excellent access to public transport. Kitchen and toilet facilities are available. Unfortunately the room is not accessible to wheelchair users.

The cost for the hire of this room is £25 for up to 2 hours, or for longer meetings £10 per hour. The room can be hired during shop opening hours on a first-come-first-served basis; it is sometimes available outside shop hours by arrangement.

For more information and bookings please call Housmans on 020 7837 4473.Housmans Bookshop, 5 Caledonian Rd, KINGS CROSS, London N1 9DX – Nearest stations: King’s Cross & St. Pancras

EVENTS
More details about all events can be found at www.housmans.com/events.php

4. (film screening – British premiere)
‘Chomsky & Company’
France, 2008, 127 mins
Saturday 7th March – 5.30pm

Housmans Bookshop present the British premiere of ‘Chomsky & Company’, a French-produced documentary which critically assesses Noam Chomsky’s body of political thought.

Noam Chomsky has become one of the most well-known intellectuals in the world. His books, lectures, film and television appearances have familiarised his rumpled demeanour and revolutionary theories to millions of people, including a number of other influential thinkers and writers.

The film explicates many of Chomsky’s greatest hits while paying particular attention to Chomsky’s thesis that the perception of events often comes down to the interests of corporations, whether they’re selling arms or selling news coverage.

This is not a complete love-in, however. The filmmakers, coming from a European position, pose a number of challenging questions including some rather pointed inquiries into the ‘Faurisson Affair’-the name given to the scandal that erupted when Chomsky’s essay on free speech was used to preface a book by holocaust denier Robert Faurisson.

5. (book event & talk)
‘Cranks and Revolutions’ with Mark Gold
Wednesday 11thMarch – 7pm

‘Cranks and Revolutions’ is a light-hearted drama-documentary of the last fifty years of radical protest in the UK. It tells the story of two brothers from a family for whom protest has always been a way of life. Brought up in the 1960s on CND marches, fund-raising events for the victims of the Nigeria-Biafra civil war and rescuing oiled sea birds after the Torre Canyon disaster, the Bob Dylan inspired Rob goes off to university to be part of the hippy generation, campaigning passionately against the Vietnam War and apartheid.

Animal rights campaigner Mark Gold will be discussing the inspiration behind his latest novel, as well as signing copies.

“Mark Gold charts the important campaigns of the past fifty years with great humour and irony in his novel. It is a reminder also to the post-war generation that the issues on which we fought were first ignored, then considered mad, then dangerous, and after a pause adopted as conventional wisdom.” Tony Benn

6. (charity art auction)
Art Auction for Gaza
Saturday 14thMarch – 2pm

Peace News and Justice Not Vengeance will be hosting an art auction, with all proceeds to benefit Medical Aid for Palestinians and the Free Gaza Movement. The artworks, primarily donated by Hastings artists, include paintings, photographs, brassware and glasswork.

7. (book event & talk)
‘Politics & Paranoia’ with Robin Ramsay
Saturday 14thMarch – 5pm

In ‘Politics & Paranoia’ Robin Ramsay, editor of para-politics journal ‘Lobster’, has published a collection of his lectures on subjects such as covert action, destabilisation, strategic theory, economics, politics, para-politics, Colin Wallace, Fred Holroyd, whistle-blowers, New Zealand, Australia, nuclear weapons, Blair, Brown, espionage, MI5, MI6, CIA, 9/11 conspiracy theories, the rise of New Labour and much more.

Robin will be touching on a selection of topics from the book, answering questions, and signing copies of his books.

Praise for Lobster Magazine

“Lobster is one of the most important magazines to be launched in the post Second World War period in Britain. It has covered a long string of stories boycotted by the other media. How has a magazine with no resources been able to do this? By understanding the sinister side of our intelligence services – out of control and careless of the consequences of its excesses.” Paul Foot

8. (book event & talk)
‘Unmasking the State: A Rough Guide to Real Democracy’
with Paul Feldman
Wednesday 18thMarch – 7pm

Housmans are delighted to welcome Paul Feldman to discuss his latest book ‘Unmasking the State: a rough guide to real democracy’.

The book analyses the historical origins of the contemporary British capitalist state and the long struggle for democracy and political rights, from the Levellers to the Chartists and beyond. It then goes on to describes the changes to the state under globalisation and how representative democracy has been undermined.

Paul also makes a series of proposals for a new, transitional state to extend democracy into workplaces and society as a whole.

The talk will be followed by a Q&A and book signing.

9. (party & book launch)
Miners’ Strike 25th Anniversary Party
Saturday 21st March – 6.30pm

In commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the miners’ strike, Housmans will be holding a book launch for ‘The Dirty 30′ – an oral history of the Leicestershire Miners who struck throughout the entire dispute, written by Dave Bell and published by Five Leaves.

The event will also be a party for the London Support Groups who worked tirelessly through the strike. Housmans’ own contribution was the creation of Canary Press which published a series of books about the strike, and the shop was a base for miners and collected many pounds for the strikers. The Canary Press titles will be on sale at the party.

With music and some tales to be told…

10. (book event & talk)
‘Unlocking Democracy – celebrating 20 years of Charter 88’
Wednesday 25th March  – 7pm

Unlock Democracy (incorporating Charter 88) is the UK’s leading campaign for democracy, rights and freedoms. A grassroots movement owned and run by its members, Unlock Democracy campaign for policies that would bring political power closer to the people through a range of parliamentary reform measures.

‘Unlocking Democracy: 20 years of Charter 88’ is a series of essays which look back at what has been achieved and, even more importantly, seeks to identify what needs to be done now. It offers a diverse and challenging collection from across the political spectrum which is sure to stimulate debate. The impressive list of contributors includes Helena Kennedy, Trevor Phillips, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, and Nick Clegg, amongst many others.

This evening will see Anthony Barnett and Peter Facey considering the successes of the campaign to date, and discussing the future possibilities of achieving a more directly democratic parliamentary system in Britain.

For more information please visit:
http://www.unlockdemocracy.org.uk

11. (book event & talk)
Nick Davies – ‘Flat Earth News’
Wednesday 1st April  – 7pm

When award-winning journalist Nick Davies decided to break Fleet Street’s unwritten rule by investigating his own colleagues, he found that the business of reporting the truth had been slowly subverted by the mass production of ignorance. Working with a network of off-the-record sources, Davies uncovered the story of the prestigious Sunday newspaper which allowed the CIA and MI6 to plant fiction in its columns; the newsroom which routinely rejects stories about black people; the respected paper that hired a professional fraudster to set up a front company to entrap senior political figures; and the newspapers which support law and order while paying cash bribes to bent detectives.

Housmans are delighted to welcome Nick Davies, who will be discussing his findings, answering questions, and signing copies of book, which is now available in paperback.

12. Forthcoming in April 2009
Check the website and next month’s newsletter for more info.

Nawal El-Saadawi – Egyptian feminist writer, activist and physician
Saturday 4th April – 5pm

Elevator Gallery presents: ‘Post-Structuralism and the Crisis of Modernity’
Wednesday 8th April – 7pm

Savage Messiah Zine Launch
Saturday 11th April – time unconfirmed (probably 5pm)

Sue Meyer – ‘Atheism and Feminism’
Saturday 18th April – 5pm

Elevator Gallery presents: ‘Spectacle, Simulacra and the final problem of Aesthetics’
Wednesday 22nd April – 7pm

Reel News launch – exclusive video-reportage from the G20 and Strasbourg actions
Saturday 25th April – 5pm

Elevator Gallery presents: ‘Rhizomes, Relational Aesthetics and the Post-modern Condition’
Wednesday 29th April – 7pm

BOOKS
For more books please visit http://www.housmans.com/books.php

13. ‘Can I Bring My Own Gun? An Israeli soldier’s story’ by Seth Freedman
£8.99 
Guardian Books/Five Leaves Publications, 160pp

Seth Freedman is a contracted journalist on the Guardian’s Comment is Free; his reports are followed, praised and condemned in equal measure, by tens of thousands of readers.

He writes from the front line of Israel and Palestine, and also behind the lines. As a former volunteer in the Israeli army reporting from the West Bank he is unique. This book relates how his views about the situation there shift, as he posts his articles on his fellow soldiers, settlers, the peace demonstrators, the Arab community on both sides of the Green Line and those who try to bring Jews and Palestinians together.

“Seth Freedman’s blog from Jerusalem has become an instant must-read for those who follow this most intractable of conflicts. His mixture of close-up, eye-witness reporting and heartfelt polemic is intoxicating. He is one writer to watch.” Jonathan Freedland, Guardian

www.housmans.com
Housmans
5 Caledonian Road
King’s Cross
London N1 9DX
t: 020 7837 4473
e: shop@housmans.com

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