Monthly talks on contemporary issues, open to anyone interested in serious discussion

Wed, 16 May 2012

The New Culture of Protest - What do we want? with Patrick Hayes and Laurie Penny

The Brighton Salon | The New Culture of Protest - What do we want? with Patrick Hayes and Laurie Penny
Source: Flickr
Image Above: Schoolgirls join hands to peacefully stop attacks on a police van during student protests in London on November 24th 2010. Photograph: Demotix/Peter Marshall
Tuesday, 22 March 2011 - 7:15pm to 9:00pm
Friends Meeting House
Ship Street
Brighton
See map: Google Maps

Popular outrage over tuition fees and cuts to public expenditure have provoked anger on the streets of Britain not seen for years. As we approach the end of the financial year and the cuts and reforms begin to bite more deeply, there is every sign that more and more people are prepared to demonstrate, especially school pupils and public sector workers who have never taken to the streets before.

However, step back from the headlines made by the protests and sit-ins and a patchwork of student, trades union and activist organisations are hosting events over which they seem to have limited control and little leadership.

School pupils and students demonstrate alongside workers organising against cuts but where is this loosely associated campaign going? Should we assume that the experience of protest will radicalise those who take part in the ways that it did in the past?

Speaker

Patrick Hayes
Source: Flickr

Patrick Hayes

Patrick Hayes, a reporter for spiked, says: “In heeding the calls of parents and teachers alike to engage in a practical citizenship class against The Man, these kids are actually far closer to being obedient little robots, internalising the ideas of their parents’ generation.”

Patrick Hayes is a reporter for online current affairs magazine spiked www.spiked-online.com and writes on a wide range of current affairs issues, with a particular focus on protests, social media and civil liberties issues. He is also head of press and promotions at the Institute of Ideas (IoI), and has been a producer of the annual Battle of Ideas festival www.battleofideas.org.uk since its inception in 2005. He is also the co-founder of the IoI’s monthly Current Affairs Forum www.currentaffairs.org.uk, which takes place in central London.

Formerly working as a researcher for the Times Educational Supplement, Patrick’s writing has appeared in a range of local, national and online publications. He regularly speaks on local and national radio, including BBC Radio 5 and has also produced films on location in India and Nepal – alongside others - for alternative online news channel WORLDbytes.

Speaker

Laurie Penny
Source: Flickr

Laurie Penny

Laurie Penny, a feminist writer for The Guardian and New Statesman among others, has called the wave of protests nothing less than a Children’s Crusade: “There are no leaders here: the thousands of schoolchildren and young people who streamed into Whitehall three hours ago in protest at the government's attacks on further and higher education were working completely off script. A wordless cry went up somewhere in the crowd and they were off, moving as one, with no instructions, towards parliament.”

Laurie Penny is a journalist and feminist activist from London. She is a regular writer for New Statesman, and her political writing was shortlisted for the Orwell prize.

Chair

Sean Bell
Source: Flickr

Sean Bell

Sean is a founder member of The Brighton Salon and a journalist who formerly worked in the local press industry and on the magazines Computing and Campaign. Sean has written dozens of reviews of salon events and occasionally contributes to other publications. He has been involved with many and various political and cultural campaigns for many years.

Sean writes freelance about the relationship between journalism the public and runs an editing and proofing company. He also organises activities for The Brighton Salon as its secretary.

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