Readings of Protest. Charged – How the Police Try to Suppress Protest.

18 October 2022 @ 8:00 PM 10:00 PM BST

Come and hear protesters from across four decades give readings of what they fought for and how their protests were policed.

The UK government’s efforts to suppress dissent in the pursuit of power have given a green light to police to apply more aggressive tactics in managing crowds and protests. The results have provoked violence and even led to officers breaking the law.

The authors of Charged, Matt Foot and Morag Livingstone reveal that in 1983 a Tory home secretary secretly sanctioned police paramilitary powers, leading 40 years later to a Police Act which seeks to extinguish any effective protest.

Join activists and organisers from Sheffield and beyond who come together to share their experiences fighting for their jobs, the environment, education and against racism. Giving us insight into their experiences the activists will connect their own struggle to the policing of protest.

Including activists from:

Warrington Printers dispute 1983
The Great Miners’ strike 1984/5 – Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC) / Women against Pit Closures
The Rotherham 12 who defended their community against racist thugs
Environmental and global justice activist
Student activist / Disabled People Against Cuts.
Chaired by local activist, Chris Peace.

Charged How the Police Try to Suppress Protest by Matt Foot and Morag Livingstone (Verso 2022)

“Brilliantly readable, it carries you with it every step of the way. One forgets how frightening authority is and the detail on police behaviour is dreadfully shocking and distressing. It never assumes what you might believe or what you might already know and at the end leaves the reader in no doubt as to what has happened in this country.”
– Emma Thompson, actor and activist

“Meticulously details violent state suppression in the protection of capital; backed by a propaganda machine. Exposed is the unofficial but permanent government with sharp attention to every detail. This is a story of how justice has been repeatedly stolen in this ruthless war against the right to protest. Read every word because you are holding history in your hands. Our history.”
– Lowkey, rapper and activist

“When you read Charged, you will see ours is one of many struggles, past and present.”
– Chris Peace, Tribune

Books will be available on the night

£5 Suggested Donation

Sheffield Transformed

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La Biblioteka

Leah's Yard, Cambridge Street
Sheffield, S3 4HP United Kingdom
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07522010803

Consumed – Q&A with Aja Barber

23 June 2022 @ 7:00 PM 7:30 PM BST

As part of our Independent Bookshop Week celebrations, La Biblioteka is delighted to be hosting an online sit-down between Hannah Wilson of My Indie Wardrobe and Aja Barber, discussing her book Consumed: The need for Collective Change; Colonialism, Climate Change & Consumerism

From the embedded injustice at the heart of the things we buy, and how and why we passively accept them, to how we can become an active agent of change through our purchasing power and self-awareness, Aja’s book positively enforces compassionate individual agency as the root of global systemic change.

If you’d like to ask Aja a question, get in touch via Instagram before or during the live event.

About Consumed:

Aja Barber wants change.
In the ‘learning’ first half of the book, she will expose you to the endemic injustices in our consumer industries and the uncomfortable history of the textile industry; one which brokered slavery, racism and today’s wealth inequality.

And how these oppressive systems have bled into the fashion industry and its lack of diversity and equality. She will also reveal how we spend our money and whose pockets it goes into and whose it doesn’t (clue: the people who do the actual work) and will tell her story of how she came to learn the truth.

In the second ‘unlearning’ half of the book, she will help you to understand the uncomfortable truth behind why you consume the way you do.

She asks you to confront the sense of lack you have, the feeling that you are never quite enough and the reasons why you fill the aching void with consumption rather than compassion. And she makes you challenge this power disparity, and take back ownership of it. The less you buy into the consumer culture the more power you have.

Consumed will teach you how to be a citizen, not a consumer.

This event will be recorded and shared across our social platforms after the event, as far as rights allow.

Free – £163

La Biblioteka

07522010803

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Instagram Live

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