David Douglass (Housmans 13.05.09)

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Housmans – radical booksellers since 1945
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BOOK EVENT/TALK

‘The Wheel’s Still in Spin’
with David Douglass
Wednesday 13th May – 7pm
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David Douglass, long-time coal miner, union activist and revolutionary, discusses the period from the end of the 60s to the coming to power of Thatcher.
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David Douglass was a pitman for 40 years in the coalfields of the Tyne and in South Yorkshire. This book, the second in his trilogy ‘Stardust and Coaldust’, deals with the period from the end of the 60s to the coming to power of Thatcher. In this 15 year period, dramatic events in the world revolution course around the globe. Dave Douglass transports us back to a time conventional histories have tried to forget or bury or rewrite.

It is a political and social history told by a direct participant in the events, and not from some distant hill of academic neutrality. It has deep and insightful cameos of pit work and the recent history of the Miners Union. Douglass joins up the dots, along with some telling insights into the hidden world of underground labour in its harsh and gritty reality.

Throughout the whole story the air of sexual freedoms, which broke free of constraints in the previous decade survive and prosper. This is a time, when the world was up for grabs, the earth resounded to the world revolutionary impulse. The genii were free from the bottle, and the music was up loud. From where we all stand now, that distant period seems dim and becomes dimmer with every new law and every new brick successive governments have placed on the wall. Soon, they hope, no-one will remember how close we came, to finishing with the whole scumbag system of greed, privilege and power.

Housmans are delighted to welcome long-time coal miner, union activist and revolutionary Dave Douglass to discuss his latest book.

For more information about Dave Douglass please visit
http://www.minersadvice.co.uk/dave.htm
http://libcom.org/tags/dave-douglass

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Event information

Wednesday 13th May – 7pm
Housmans Bookshop
5 Caledonian Road
King's Cross
London N1 9DX
Tel: 020 7837 4473

Free entry
Nearest tube: King's Cross
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