William Thompson Weekend 2004: April 30 - May 2

by Rosie Meade - William Thompson Weekend Thu Apr 08, 2004 17:45 r.meade at ucc dot ie

Discuss ‘CLASS: politics, agency, identity’ in Cork, April 30-May 2
The fifth William Thompson Weekend will focus on the theme of Class. Contributors include, Lynne Segal, Paual Meehan, Des Derwin, Kathleen Lynch, Huw Beynon and many others.
WILLIAM THOMPSON WEEKEND

‘CLASS: politics, agency, identity’

FIRKIN CRANE CENTRE, SHANDON, CORK

30 APRIL - 2 MAY 2004


William Thompson was a pioneer in his use of class as a way of understanding and explaining our social, political, economic and cultural life. Marx and Marxism subsequently put class analysis and activism centre stage, but in recent years it has become an increasingly marginalised concept in political and academic discourse. But class still matters, and this year’s William Thompson Weekend features a range of presentations that explore how it determines and structures people’s lives and life chances, and how it can be reclaimed as political force.

While class has always been, and continues to be a powerful determinant of everyday life experience in Ireland, it has had little force as a political concept. The importance of class consciousness and the way in which the working class can act as an agent of political transformation through collective organisation will be among the themes explored, as will the relevance of class identity and the contested area of representation. The interconnection between class and gender, another of Thompson’s pioneering contributions will also be addressed.

This year’s William Thompson Lecture will be given by the internationally renowned feminist writer and activist Lynne Segal, who will discuss her own political and personal journeys in the context of the class and gender struggles in which she has been involved. Academics and community, trade union and political activists will explore the centrality of class in a range of contexts from a variety of perspectives. The weekend will also feature a reading and talk by the poet Paula Meehan and the Cork premiere of the latest offering from the innovative radical media organisation, Undercurrents.


PROGRAMME

FRIDAY 30 APRIL

7.00 - 7.30pm
REGISTRATION

7.30pm
The Annual William Thompson Lecture
Lynne Segal
‘Sparks of hope: political journeys’


SATURDAY 1 MAY

10.30 am
Joe Finnerty
‘Housing and inequality in Ireland’

Phillip Crowley
‘Health inequalities and occupational class - what is the story?’

Sheila Lee
‘A working class view’: experiencing social inequality


LUNCH 12.30 - 2.00 pm

2.15pm
Ciaran McCullagh
‘Class and crime’

Kathleen Lynch
‘Breaking the silences in contemporary Ireland: the role of ideology’


SUNDAY 2 MAY

10.15 am
Premiere screening of ‘Undercurrents News Network’

11.30 am
Forum: ‘Trade unions and the Irish working class’

Lead speaker: Noel Murphy (Independent Workers’ Union)
Respondent: Des Derwin (SIPTU)


LUNCH 1.15 - 2.15


2.30 pm

Huw Beynon
‘The destruction of the working class?’

Paula Meehan
Poetry reading and discussion


8.30 pm
Cork Singers’ Club
‘Songs of work, protest and revolution’
Spailpin Fanach, South Main Street


Weekend: €30 (unwaged: €15)
Day: €15 (€7 uw)
Session: €7.50 (€3 uw)

Weekend solidarity price: €45


CONTACTS
Tel. 021-4902991 or 021-4903048 or email r.meade@ucc.ie



SPEAKERS

Lynne Segal is Professor of Psychology and Gender Studies at Birkbeck College, London University, and an internationally renowned feminist theorist and activist. Her books include Is the Future Female? Troubled Thoughts on Contemporary Feminism; Slow Motion: Changing Masculinities, Changing Men; Straight Sex: The Politics of Pleasure; Why Feminism? Gender, Psychology, Politics. She is currently writing Making Trouble: Political Journeys.

Philip Crowley is general practitioner who works in Dublin’s north inner city. He has also worked in Newcastle as a community worker and has published on health, class and community action. He is director of the Irish College of General Practitioners ‘General Practice in a Multicultural Society’ project

Joe Finnerty lectures on housing, social exclusion and inequality in the Department of Applied Social Studies, UCC. Recent articles include ‘Homes for the Working Classes: Local Authority Housing in the Irish Republic, 1947-2002’ and ‘Housing Pressure in the Irish Countryside’. He is a member of the William Thompson Weekend organising group.

Sheila Lee is a working class woman, grandmother and life-long community activist. She is currently active in the Cork Anti-Poverty Resource Network, Write Together, Cork Women's Action Group, Mná Feasa and We the People Community Development Project. She is also a community representative on the RAPID programme in Cork city.

Ciaran McCullagh lectures in Sociology at University College Cork. He is the author of Crime in Ireland: a Sociological Introduction (1996) and Media Power: A Sociological Introduction (2002). He has published widely on crime, most recently on white-collar crime and tax evasion. He contributes a weekly opinion column on Crime and Media to Inside Cork.

Kathleen Lynch has written and undertaken extensive research on the theme of class in Irish society, and has made a particularly important contribution to the understanding of class inequalities within the education system. She has co-authored, with John Baker, Sarah Cantillon and Judy Walsh, the forthcoming (2004) book Equality, From Theory to Action. She is currently professor at the Equality Studies Centre, University College Dublin.

Noel Murphy is a trade union official and political activist. He is former Secretary of the Cork Council of Trade Unions and is National Secretary of the recently formed Independent Workers’ Union.

Des Derwin is president of the Electronics and Engineering Branch of SIPTU and a member of the union’s Dublin Private Sector Regional Executive Committee. He is an independent socialist and a long-time campaigner against centralised bargaining and social partnership.

Huw Beynon is a Professor of Sociology at Cardiff University. He has written extensively on work, class and class struggle. He recently published Looking at Class: Film, Television and the Working Class in Britain (with Sheila Rowbotham).

Paula Meehan was born and reared in the north inner city of Dublin. She is an award-winning poet and playwright. She will read from and discuss her own work - poems celebrating struggle and community.

Undercurrents is an award-winning alternative media organisation. This weekend will see the first Cork screening of their new video news service, Undercurrents News Network. It features the Catholic Worker activists who disabled an American plane at Shannon, the success of student protestors in bringing one of the world’s wealthiest corporations to its knees, a hilarious musical parody of the Bush-Blair relationship, and much more