News & events

RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP

The Barry Amiel & Normal Melburn Trust, in partnership with The Equality Trust, would like to appoint a Research Fellow for one year starting this autumn, to undertake research on the relation between changes in income inequality and changes in health and social outcomes in developed nations. The fellow would work in the London office of The Equality Trust with support from Profs Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett (authors of The Spirit Level). As well as presenting findings in academic research papers, the Fellow would also contribute to the Trust’s information and educational resources. Further details can be found at: www.equalitytrust.org.uk/about/jobs.

Applicants should have a relevant higher degree, a good grounding in statistics, and a keen interest in related research and policy issues.

The Fellow will receive an award in line with ESRC research rate of £15,590. Applications including a c.v. and covering letter to be submitted to Kathryn.Busby@equalitytrust.org.uk by 5pm on 23rd June.

Nina Fishman’s Arthur Horner: A Political Biography will be published at the end of March 2010.

If you would like an invite to the launch celebration, which takes place at the House of Commons on 25 March, 12.45–2pm please contact
Sally Davison
at Lawrence and Wishart (sally@lwbooks.co.uk).

For more information on the book see http://www.lwbooks.co.uk/books/archive/arthurhorner.html.

Nina Fishman, trustee of the Barry Amiel & Norman Melburn trust , died on Saturday 5th December. Neal Lawson remembers her.
No one had more layers than Nina Fishman. She would arrive at any meeting at any time of the year decked in waistcoats, coats, overcoats and then her whole cycling regalia. As soon as these wrappings were off she would be off: "You see Neal it's the same as the problem in the 1940s when Arthur Horner was General Secretary of the NUM ...." And she would sweep through the historical significance of this or that event as it related to today.
Nina was always finishing yet another Labour history book - deep in research and thought. Her political passions were electoral reform and a social Europe and when I say passions I mean passions. She never gave up on either, no matter how slow the progress, always earnest, always positive and always looking for answers.

Nina was a great friend of Compass. She prodded, pushed and backed us. She opened doors to others and actively supported what we did. She believed in us in a way that gave you the strength and determination to go on even when things got rough or difficult. We couldn't let people like Nina down. She was always "so pleased" to hear good news or help you through harder times.

She had been ill with cancer but still unexpectedly and peacefully Nina died on Saturday. Our thoughts are with Phil and her family. We grieve with them because we feel the loss too; of a friend and a true comrade.

Nina Fishman had lots of layers and those of us who were lucky enough to know her loved all of them.

Neal Lawson

News & events
A company of North West actors will be visiting The Met, in Bury, this month to perform their adaptation of “The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists.” <read more>

Legacies & futures
19 September 2009, Ruskin College, Oxford
The History Workshop and Radical Education
The recent opening up of the History Workshop archive at Ruskin College – in addition to the Raphael Samuel Archive at the Bishopsgate Institute –
provides new opportunities for thinking about History.
The History Workshops held in the 1960s, 70s and 80s provided particular opportunities for wideranging discussions of History and its application in
the present. The History Workshop Movement was seen as a radical movement dedicated to political change and new ways of thinking about the past and
present.
While discussion of the past in the public domain has arguably opened up extensively, History in schools, colleges, universities and adult education is
circumscribed by different constraints to those of the early years of the History Workshop.
What are the possibilities now of practising radical history-making? Is democratic scholarship viable –and what forms can it take? What new forms of
engagement are possible? What have we learned and what should be left in the past? What different roles might History have in local and community activism?
This one day conference is not intended to be a nostalgic event but to provide an opportunity to think about and discuss visions and practical
examples now.
Dowload registration form

Sam Aaronovitch political writing prize 2008
winning article

Round and round the houses: the Leitch Review of Skills
written by Alison Wolf, King's College London

Dave Cope’s CPGB Bibliography is a hugely valuable resource for those of us involved with both researching and supporting research in the politics of the left. With 10 categories of materials produced by the CP, and 4 categories of material about the CP users can efficiently and quickly drill down through the database. The keyword facility is a useful additional tool, especially as it includes in its scope the (where applicable) “comments” field, with its explications and often fascinating nippets of additional information’.
John Powles, Head of Special Collections at Glasgow Caledonian University

Long after its dissolution, the history of the Communist Party of Great Britain continues to capture the interest and imagination of academics, writers and researchers. There can have been few political projects that generated such an intensity of debate, and produced such an enormous volume of literature. Despite its relatively small size, the influence of the CPGB - in the fields of politics, theory, culture, social policy, and anti-racism - was enormous.
Now, for the first time, through Dave Cope’s definitive survey, researchers can gain a true picture of the breath-taking pace of production, and ambitious range of projects undertaken by the Party during its 71year history.
Available to all on the web, this bibliography represents both a labour of love and an immensely valuable practical tool for anyone with an interest in Left-wing politics. It is to be highly recommended as an example of scholarship and clarity, and as an example of the manner in which the internet can be used to share, document, and democratise knowledge of our radical past.
John Callow, Marx Memorial Library

Terry Eagleton is John Edward Taylor Professor of English Literature at the University of Manchester and a Fellow of the British Academy. He has written almost fifty books of literary criticism and cultural theory, has taught and lectured widely throughout the world, and has had stage plays produced in London and Ireland. A study of ethics, Trouble with Strangers, is due from Basil Blackwell this September.

His lecture Socialism & Culture investigates the central role which culture has played in the politics of the 20th century, and examines the role of culture in the so-called war on terror. It considers the interrelations between culture, civilization and so-called barbarism, and argues that in certain key respects ‘culture’ is being treated as a new form of barbarism.

5 December 2006
A first instalment of Race & Class articles is available in the archive.

The Barry Amiel & Norman Melburn Trust Annual Lecture 2006

Dr Moshe Machover
Founding Member of the Socialist Organization in Israel (Matzpen)
& Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at King's College, London.
Israelis & Palestinians:
Conflict & Resolution
Chair: Tariq Ali

Black Gold, a film documentary supported
by the Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust, is
part of the official selection of the London Film
Festival 2006.
Black Gold is a moving and eye-opening look into
the 80-billion-dollar global coffee industry, where
the spoils of overpriced lattes and cappuccinos are
sparsely shared with the farmers who make it all possible.
Sundance Film Festival, 2006

Rethinking Social Democracy Conference - Sheffield 2006:
Social democracy in the post-bipolar world:
Challenges in the developed world, opportunities in
the developing world? 28-30 June 2006 - Unversity of Sheffield

2005 Sam Aaronovitch political writing prize
winners: Fred Robinson, Keith Shaw, and Gill Davidson
‘On the Side of the Angels’: Community Involvement in the Governance of Neighbourhood Renewal  

New Political Writing Prize 2005
Winners of the Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust/New Statesman Prize for New Political Writing on the subject:
Do women’s rights remain the privilege of the developed world?
First: Racheal Walker
Second: Verity Johnson
Third: Sarah Solemani and Tanya Angerer