Nerve magazine introduces Liverpool’s Capital of Culture year with a Merseyside Resistance Calendar 2008.
The calendar records and celebrates the region’s strong tradition of radicalism and dissent. History is for the most part written by and for the rich and powerful and ‘official’ accounts of Liverpool's past are no exception. But an essential part of our history are those people and groups who stood up for their communities and what they believed in and who ‘had a go’ without waiting for society’s approval.
On each of the twelve monthly pages, individual dates are recorded as the anniversaries of protests, occupations, boycotts, publications, marches, uprisings and festivals between 1749 and 2006. These include:
* February 23rd 1988 - Liverpool dockers refuse to handle uranium mined in apartheid-ruled Namibia * March 31st 2006 - Over 2,000 demonstrate against Condoleezza Rice visit * July 1796 - Edward Rushton’s ‘Letter to Washington’ challenges the President for owning slaves while upholding liberty * August 28th 1920 - Printers' strike stops Daily Post and Echo (both the main local papers) for three weeks * October 10th 1937 - Fascist rally at Queens Drive halted when Oswald Mosley is struck by a stone * November 25th 1969 - John Lennon returns his MBE to Buckingham Palace
Each month’s display is accompanied by a photograph or original artwork including:
* February – Right to Work marchers of 1972 * June - Liverpool-born Jim Larkin (who inspired workers on both sides of the Irish Sea) with National Union of Dock Labourers * August - March through city centre led by the Liverpool 8 Defence Committee (15 August 1981) * October - Liverpool’s ‘Tatlin Tower’, the speakers podium erected in 1973 at the Pier Head to commemorate workers’ international struggles and ‘disappeared’ by Liverpool City Council in the early 1990s.
The calendar forms the centrepiece of the magazine’s 11th issue. In the surrounding pages are articles and reviews including an account of Paul Robeson’s 1949 visit to Liverpool and a tribute to seaman activist John Nettleton who along with Alan O’Toole discovered the pauper’s grave of Robert Noonan (author of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists). On the cover is a mural by local artist Stok entitled ‘Liverpool Radicals, Peoples Champions’.
The magazine is independent and is distributed 'free or donation'. Outlets include News from Nowhere bookshop on Bold Street.
For further information contact: Jeremy Hawthorn 07974 182310
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