Titanic Letterpress...

With all the Titanic hype this week, there's even a book/blog about the Titanic's in-house printshop. Interesting revived typeface, but I like the linocuts the best... have a peek here.

Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012)

 

From Icky at Justseeds: I just learned that Elizabeth Catlett died on Monday, at her home in Mexico at the age of 96. Catlett was an outstanding participant of the black arts movement in the US, as well as an early (and long time) member of the Taller de Grafica Popular in her adopted home in Mexico. She was a sculptress and a print-maker; and her masterful synthesis of line, form, and content exerted a huge influence on folks around the world, and especially on many of us involved in Justseeds. RIP

Celebrate People’s History, an exhibition of over 50 international posters documenting radical moments in history

Katipo Books is proud to present Celebrate People’s History - an exhibition of over 50 international posters documenting radical moments in history. The exhibition will run from Monday 16 April until Monday 14 May in the Young Adults section of the Upper Riccarton Community and School Library.

Since 1998 the Celebrate People’s History Project has produced an amazing array of political posters by different artists from around the world, each highlighting a historical example of struggle for human rights, social justice, and freedom. From the Spanish Revolution to feminist labour organisers, indigenous movements to environmental sustainability, protests against racism to the Korean Peasant’s League — Celebrate People’s History canvases global movements in collaboration with a global network of artists.

Visually the posters are as diverse as the topics themselves. Screenprint, woodcut, linocut, illustration, line art and traditional graphic design all feature in full colour — employed to engage in much needed critical reflection about aspects of our history often overlooked by mainstream narratives. A seamless welding of art and social themes, Celebrate People’s History is sure to excite the history junkie, poster enthusiast, art student, adult learner, and activist alike.

There will also be a public talk on Saturday 21 April by local poster maker/historian Jared Davidson on his own contribution to the exhibition with the poster, Red Feds: the first and only People’s History poster about New Zealand.

• Preview some of the works here

Celebrate People's History
Monday April 16 - May 14, 2012

Open during normal library hours

• Monday - Friday 9:00 am - 8:00 pm
• Saturday & Sunday 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Upper Riccarton Library (Young Adult Section)
71 Main South Road, Sockburn

Labour History Project Newsletter 54: sneak peek

Here's a sneak peek at the cover of the latest Labour History Project Newsletter, featuring Miss Elsie Thorn of Christchurch dressed as the Maoriland Worker, 1911. Once again, it was a fun wee design job, and now that I have a grid it's a really quick job at that. Check out the LHP and past newsletters here.

Pic of batch #1, and bottling #3: American Pale Ale

#1: Coopers Real Ale

Well, a quick beer update. Tried Batch #2—the Black Rock Pilsner—this week, which is close to 4 weeks old now. It's still a little young I think, but it has come out as a super drinkable, refreshing Pilsner. It's got a bit more depth than the Batch #1 thanks to the Copper Tun enhancer, but still not as hoppy as I'd like (think Wigram Bohemian Pilsner, or the Three Boys Pilsner). This may change over time, but I definitely think the addition of some Riwaka or Tettnanger Hops would do the trick. Also, Batch #1—the Cooper's Real Ale—is heaps better now that it is 8 weeks old. The sugar taste is still there, but its flavorsome and quite nice. The picture above is of the Coopers Real Ale.

Today my friend and I bottled Batch #3, which will hopefully be close to an APA (American Pale Ale)—a hoppy, aromatic ale that's bitter, but not quite as bitter as an IPA. Here's a run down of the ingredients, and a few pics to boot.

Batch #3: American Pale Ale (APA)

Method: Kit + Enhancer + Hops
Ingredients: Muntons Traditional Bitter Kit (35-45 EBU, 27-33 EBC), Copper Tun English Bitter Enhancer, Golding Hops (0.5oz pellets as a tea), Chinook Hops (1oz pellets, dry hopped)
Original Gravity: ???
Final Gravity: 1020
ABV: ???
Bottles: Glass (500ml, 330ml).
Bottled: 31-03-2012

Grabbed the Muntons Traditional Bitter Kit, which had one of the higher bitter ratings off the shelf, and spiced things up with 2 varieties of hops (in pellet form). Using a pre-boiled and sanitised stocking, I boiled 0.5oz of Golding Hops in 3L of water, making a really aromatic hop tea (this method won't get any bitterness from the hops, just flavour and aroma). This replaced the hot water I usually use from the kettle. We then added the Copper Tun Enhancer, stirred well, and poured in cold water to make 22L at 22 degrees. It smelt awesome, and the kit was nice and bitter—more so than the last two kits.

Now here's were we made a mistake. We didn't stir the cold water into the hot, which meant that when I took a hydrometer reading it was only at 1030. We did gently stir and swish around the yeast, but yeah, the density of the mix was really uneven. When I took a reading from the tap, it was over 1090 (eek!). Note to self: stir before adding the yeast to aerate properly.

Four days later, I bagged 1oz of Chinook Hop pellets in a sanitised stocking and placed them into the fermenter. This will hopefully add more complexity to the flavour and aroma, and give it that APA touch.

Which leads to today's bottling. We had a sneaky taste of the beer, and wow! Nice and bitter, and smelt awesome. Obviously still pretty green, very opaque still (a light brown/mud colour), but that will change over time. Like the last batch, it never passed 1020. I wonder if this is from not stirring, or maybe I need some more fermentables as the Enhancer isn't enough. But apart from that, I'm really excited about this one. 

Sex, Race, and Class: new book of Selma James' writings

The good folk over at PM Press have just released Sex, Race and Class, a collection of texts by Selma James (not to be confused with her excellent article of the same name). James has been at the forefront of the Wages for Housework campaign, and making visible the role of domestic work and unwaged labour (such as women's reproductive labour) in capital. From the site:

"In 1972 Selma James set out a new political perspective. Her starting point was the millions of unwaged women who, working in the home and on the land, were not seen as “workers” and their struggles viewed as outside of the class struggle. Based on her political training in the Johnson-Forest Tendency, founded by her late husband C.L.R. James, on movement experience South and North, and on a respectful study of Marx, she redefined the working class to include sectors previously dismissed as “marginal.”

For James, the class struggle presents itself as the conflict between the reproduction and survival of the human race, and the domination of the market with its exploitation, wars, and ecological devastation. She sums up her strategy for change as “Invest in Caring not Killing.”

This selection, spanning six decades, traces the development of this perspective in the course of building an international campaigning network. It includes the classic The Power of Women and the Subversion of the Community which launched the “domestic labor debate,” the exciting Hookers in the House of the Lord which describes a church occupation by sex workers, an incisive review of the C.L.R. James masterpiece The Black Jacobins, a reappraisal of the novels of Jean Rhys and of the leadership of Julius Nyerere, the groundbreaking Marx and Feminism, and “What the Marxists Never Told Us About Marx,” published here for the first time.

The writing is lucid and without jargon. The ideas, never abstract, spring from the experience of organising, from trying to make sense of the successes and the setbacks, and from the need to find a way forward."

Praise:
"It's time to acknowledge James’s path-breaking analysis: from 1972 she re-interpreted the capitalist economy to show that it rests on the usually invisible unwaged caring work of women."  —Dr. Peggy Antrobus, feminist, author of The Global Women’s Movement: Origins, Issues and Strategies
“For clarity and commitment to Haiti’s revolutionary legacy…Selma is a sister after my own heart.”  —Danny Glover, actor and activist

“The publication of these essays reflects in concentrated form the history of the new society struggling to be born. Their appearance today could not be timelier. As the fruit of the collective experience of the last half-century, they will help to acquaint a whole new generation with not only what it means to think theoretically, but, more importantly, the requirement of organization as the means of testing those ideas. In this respect, Selma James embodies in these essays the spirit of the revolutionary tradition at its most relevant.”  —Dr. Robert A. Hill, Literary Executor of the estate of C.L.R. James, University of California, Los Angeles, Director, Marcus Garvey Papers Project

“In this incisive and necessary collection of essays and talks spanning over five decades, Selma James reminds us that liberation cannot be handed down from above. This is a feminism that truly matters.”  —Dr. Alissa Trotz, Associate Professor of Women and Gender Studies, Director of Caribbean Studies, University of Toronto

“With her latest book, Selma James reaffirms what has been evident for some time:  she is—quite simply—not only one of the most outstanding feminist thinkers of her generation but, as well, an insightful and exceedingly intelligent political analyst.”  —Dr. Gerald Horne, historian and author, John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston

About the Author:
Selma James is a women's rights and anti-racist campaigner and author. From 1958 to 1962 she worked with C.L.R. James in the movement for West Indian federation and independence. In 1972 she founded the International Wages for Housework Campaign, and in 2000 helped launch the Global Women's Strike whose strategy for change is "Invest in Caring not Killing". She coined the word “unwaged” which has since entered the English language. In the 1970s she was the first spokeswoman of the English Collective of Prostitutes. She is a founding member of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. She co-authored the classic The Power of Women and the Subversion of the Community which launched the “domestic labour debate.”  Other publications include A Woman’s Place (1952), Women, the Unions and Work, or what is not to be done (1972), Sex, Race and Class (1974), Wageless of the World (1974), The Rapist Who Pays the Rent (1982), The Ladies and the Mammies—Jane Austen and Jean Rhys (1983), Marx and Feminism (1983), Hookers in the House of the Lord (1983), Strangers & Sisters: Women, Race and Immigration (1985), The Global Kitchen—the Case for Counting Unwaged Work (1985 and 1995), and The Milk of Human Kindness—Defending Breastfeeding from the AIDS Industry and the Global Market (2005).

Her writing is indeed compelling, conveying in simple and understandable terms the mechanics of capitalist exploitation, and its effect on women. Marx and Feminism is such a great piece, and it's worth getting the book for this alone. Other online articles worth reading are Sex, Race and Class; The Power of Women...; and Women, the Unions, and Work, Or... What is not to be Done.

Make sure you grab this one.

Lynd Ward: 'Company Town'

Lynd Ward, Company Town, 1936.  Wood engraving, 5 x 4 ½ in. 

Images from the 1913 Great Strike

I've been looking through images of the 1913 Great Strike on BETA, the new combined finding aid for the Alexander Turnbull Libray and the National Library. After writing about it, its surreal to look at the images and then picture the event. Here's a collection of some of the best ones (sorry for the lack of captions—search '1913 Strike' here for more info).

Alec Icky Dunn

Thought I'd share the amazing work of Alec Icky Dunn, another Justseeds collaborator and radical cultural worker. Alec has kindly said yes to illustrating my forthcoming book on anarchism in New Zealand, which will be published by AK Press in the summer. You can find more at his blog here.

Urewera 4: hung jury

From October 15th: ‘We consider the inability of the jury to make a decision on Count 1 in the Urewera case a victory. The inability of the jury to make a decision on Count 1 in the Urewera case is evidence that the crown’s story doesn’t stack up. We have always said that this charge was laid specifically in order that the crown could use evidence it knew was illegal in order to secure convictions on firearms charges. It is a stitch up from start to finish’ said Valerie Morse from the October 15th Solidarity group.

‘The Supreme Court’s decision in September last year stated unequivocally that the evidence was illegal. It couldn’t be used against those charged only under the Arms Act. For the five who were charged under section 98A – Participation in an organised criminal group, the evidence was admissible, despite it being illegal. This charge should never have been allowed.’

‘Operation 8 was a multimillion dollar police operation designed to harass Tuhoe and political activists. After six years, the crown has secured a few firearms convictions based on illegal evidence. This whole episode reveals the sad face of a racist country determined to quash Maori aspirations for sovereignty.’

If only I was in Michigan...