Bristol Transformed

Ticket link on headfirst: hdfst.uk/e145672 Bristol Transformed is back for its seventh year! Bristol’s leading festival of radical politics, arts and culture will return on Easter weekend (4-5 April) at the Trinity Centre. There’ll be workshops, panels and activities covering a whole range of left politics. Come along to learn about practice, theory, and how we can all get involved to transform ourselves, Bristol, and the world! - 100 years on from the 1926 General Strike in the UK - how did it get organised, who took part and what can we learn - Organising for Palestine - discussing revolutionary praxis with the Bristol Apartheid Free Zone Should we all join the Greens? Or should we make Your Party Our party? Untangling the puzzle of the left parties in Britain - Comrade Delta - A conversation with David Renton about his new book and what the left can learn about the scandals and failures of the SWP, the largest far left party in Britain How to radicalise your union? Ideas and approaches to building power and class solidarity in local branches - Socialist Housing - how can we fight for more and better social housing and take a step towards destroying landlordism in the UK’s third most expensive city to rent in. As always, we will have you covered for free childcare all weekend, courtesy of our Childcare Caucus - included in the cost of a ticket! We are also excited to announce a brand new addition to this year's festival - a young people's programme aimed at 11-16 year olds. This is as well as our crèche for lefty little ones. Run by experienced youth workers and BT organisers, expect sessions including: - March on the Boss: a tactic for activists of all ages - Protest songs workshop from Glasgow Anarchist Choir - An introduction to colonialism and capitalism through an interactive game All under 16s get in free to the festival. If you are part of, or know a young people's organisation that might want to attend the day, please get in touch by emailing: kidsprogramme@bristoltransformed.co.uk Early bird tickets are now on sale - available for a limited time only, so get them while you can!

👏 FULL PROGRAMME RELEASE 👏 We are extremely excited to announce or full programme for this years festival, which will kick off in 2 weeks!!! We'll have sessions covering a whole range of socialist topics, always with an aim of how can we organise to win. Covering party politics with the Greens and Your Party, fighting far right extremism locally & globally and looking at the state of Trade Union organising 100 years on from the General Strike. And be sure to make our closing session, where we will confront the biggest issue of our time, rising imperialism. We'll discuss how we can and must organise against it as socialists and how YOU can do it - for a liberated Palestine, Iran and and for the whole international working class ✊️ 🇵🇸 ⚒️ We'll be joined by a whole range of organisers - rank-and-file trade unionists, authors, academics, and leading activists in their fields - as well as organisations from up and down the country including: Palestine Youth Movement (@pymbritain), Greens Organise (@greensorganise), The Bristol Cable (@thebristolcable), Bristol Apartheid-Free Zone (@bristolafz), Workers For a Free Palestine (@workers4pal), Iskra Books (@read_iskrabooks), local union branches, and many more! All of this comes with not only FREE CHILDCARE ALL DAY for the mini-Marxists out there (all ages welcome!), but for the first time this year a full youth programme aimed at 11-16 year olds interested in left wing and socialist politics. 16s and under all get in free for the festival (but still need to "buy" a ticket on headfirst!) As well as hours of amazing educational content, we've got great evening entertainment lined up. We'll be kicking off on the Friday night with socialist Shark Tank (i.e. Marx Tank) and on Saturday we have a whole evening of entertainment lined up - a pub quiz, sea shanties workshop, bands, and DJ's late into the night. Full details of the programming and sessions can be found on our website: bristoltransformed.co.uk/festival/brist… Festival Tickets: hdfst.uk/e145672 Afterparty Tickets (needed for Saturday evening entertainment): hdfst.uk/e150198 Bristol Transformed is entirely volunteer run - all money goes back into socialist organising in our city and beyond. If you would like to get involved, sign up on the forms on our website.

🚨 SESSION ANNOUNCEMENT - Why your campaign isn’t working (yet)🚨 The Bristol Cable (@thebristolcable) is one of the UK’s only independent, investigative local papers, and we are very excited to have them back at the festival this year, this time delivering a hands-on organising workshop: Why your campaign isn’t working (yet): power, strategy and organising beyond the usual tactics. Look forward to a hands on participatory workshop where we’ll explore understandings of power, how to cut an issue, power analysis and strategy setting, delivered by Sam Kinch, community organiser at the Cable (@organising_cable) Get your festival tickets here: hdfst.uk/e145672

✊️ Tuesday 24th ✊️ The past two years have seen many acts of organised resistance against the genocide in Gaza. While heroic and inspiring, these efforts have so far not compelled our governments to act. Why have different tactics succeeded or failed? How can we overcome the barriers to effective organising? How do we build a mass politics against imperialism? Join us on Tuesday and help us organise to do it: hdfst.uk/e144797

🚨 SESSION ANNOUNCEMENT - ZIONISM & IMPERIALISM 🚨 What are the links between capitalism, Western imperialism, and Zionism? How might these dynamics shape "Israel’s" actions, and help us understand Britain’s role in the genocide? Join this panel + Q&A with speakers from Bristol Apartheid-Free Zone, Palestine Youth Movement, Energy Embargo for Palestine (@EEforpalestine) & Hil Aked (@hil_aked), author of "Friends of Israel: The Backlash Against Palestine Solidarity" to explore these questions and what their answers might mean for organising against it. Festival Tickets on headfirst: hdfst.uk/e145672

Tonight! Join us for our latest discussion of (radical) social work. Who counts as a child? What does that mean about the way we should treat them? Why have British social work & legal systems given inconsistent answers to these questions over time? 18:30 in PRSC. Tickets on Headfirst: hdfst.uk/e144792

We are extremely excited to announce a collaboration with Watershed for a super special post-festival screening + panel Q&A of the film Everybody To Kenmure Street, an inspiring story of civil resistance when a community came together on a shared mission to stop their neighbours’ deportation. A surefire way to cure your post Bristol Transformed blues, be sure to get down to Watershed for this incredible Easter Monday treat! Joining us afterwards on the panel will be spokespeople from Bristol Anti-Raids (@brisantiraids), Bristol Anti-Racist Action (@bristol.antiracistaction) and Bristol Apartheid-Free Zone (@bristolafz) Tickets for this screening are sold separately to the festival, purchase them on Watershed’s website here: watershed.co.uk/whatson/13888/… Bristol Transformed, Bristol’s leading festival of radical politics, arts and culture, will return on Easter weekend (4-5 April) at the Trinity Centre. There’ll be workshops, panels and activities covering a whole range of left politics. Come along to learn about practice, theory, and how we can all get involved to transform ourselves, Bristol, and the world! Get tickets on Headfirst: hdfst.uk/e145672 We will have a small allocation of free tickets for comrades unable to purchase tickets, please email info@bristoltransformed.co.uk to request them.

🚨 SESSION ANNOUNCEMENT - FLAGS: NATIONS, RACE, CLASS 🚨 What's going on with all the flags? What's the relationship between race, class, and national identity? What is driving the rise of the right and the resurgent nationalism? How do we fight it? Join us for a panel examining the rise of the far right both locally and globally to answer these questions. Ticket link: hdfst.uk/e145672 Aurelien Mondon (he/him) (@aurelmondon) is a Professor of Politics at the University of Bath and co-convenor of the Reactionary Politics Research Network. His research focuses predominantly on the mainstreaming of reactionary politics, focusing in particular on the role of elite discourse. His latest book Reactionary democracy: How racism and the populist far right became mainstream, co-written with Aaron Winter, was published in 2020 with Verso. In 2024, he co-edited The Ethics of Researching the Far Right with Antonia Vaughan, Joan Braune and Meghan Tinsley. Dan Evans (@dai_alectic) is a writer and academic based in South Wales who specialises in social class. He writes about class and politics for outlets such as The Guardian, The New Statesman, Jacobin, Tribune, Unherdand more and is a regular contributor to Novara Media. His most recent book is A Nation of Shopkeepers: The Unstoppable Rise of the Petty Bourgeoisie (Repeater, 2023).

It's me!! I'll be at Bristol Transformed discussing the Comrade Delta scandal w/ David Renton and his vital new book covering the incident. We'll cover why the SWP haven't learnt their lessons from this awful period and why on earth people wouldn't just leave the party.

🚨 SESSION ANNOUNCEMENT: UNPACKING THE SWP 🚨 The SWP are a pervasive force in British anti-establishment politics, protests, trade unions, and the ‘Left’ broadly. In 2013 the organisation was rocked to its core by the so-called 'Comrade Delta' scandal. David Renton is a barrister, historian and former SWP member who has a forthcoming book about the case. He joins us in conversation with Isaac Kneebone-Hopkins (@isaac_kh), freelance reporter, podcaster, trade union organiser and friend of the festival. Get your tickets on Headfirst, link in bio! 🔗

BRISTOL TRANSFORMED AFTER DARK - hdfst.uk/e150198 Extremely excited to announce the line up for the infamous Bristol Transformed after party, this year hosted by our comrades at Collective Festival. We will be bringing you an evening of raucous sea shanties, folk punk bangers and sweltering club cuts to curb your ennui. Saturday April 4th 20:00 - 02:00 am Trinity Centre - Main Hall £7.50 early birds £10 OTD 20:30 - 21:00 pm - Easton Shanties 21:00 - 22:45 pm - Poor Old Dogs 23:00 - 00:00 am - Ashanti 007 (Queerky) 00-00 - 01:00 am - MiNNiM 01:00 - 02:00 am - DJ Fiat 500 Entry to the main event recommended but not required!

Who gets to be a child? In this Radical Social Work event we'll discuss how the state's treatment of children has changed over time, the motivations behind those changes, and how this intersects with children's race and class. Tickets on Headfirst: hdfst.uk/e144792

All over the world, we have seen not only a huge outpouring of grief for the genocide in Gaza, but many acts of organised resistance against it. Marches, direct actions, nationwide strikes, and solidarity flotillas have shown that the vast majority of the planet is against genocide and western imperialism. But while heroic and inspiring, these efforts have so far failed to compel our governments to act. In fact, US & Zionist imperialism appears to be more emboldened than ever; after kidnapping the President of Venezuela, and then making claims over Greenland, they now have taken the horrific and devastating step of declaring all out war on Iran. In this session, we are going to explore the different ways of organising against imperialism and look at their strengths and weaknesses. We are going to examine why and where some have been successful, while others less so. We are going to look at the structures in place that prevent effective organising and talk about the different tactics that have been used over the years to overcome them. It is becoming more and more clear that appeals to the morality and good will of politicians does not work. Meaningful change can only come from creating mass politics, engaging everyone in the struggle against imperialism and forcing our governments to act. Join the session and help us organise to do it. - What to expect - A short talk, followed by a discussion with inputs welcome from all attendees. Most of our events have somewhere between 10-30 attendees. We aim for every event to be accessible to everyone, regardless of any prior knowledge! Get your tickets here: hdfst.uk/e144797

🚨🚨 SESSION ANNOUNCEMENT: Striking Women: From Matchgirls To Grunwick 🚨🚨 We're celebrating International Women's Day by announcing this exciting session for BT26. We'll be joined by Professor Sundari Anitha, Professor Ruth Pearson and Dr Louise Raw (@LouiseRawAuthor) to explore the legacy of the Grunwick Dispute, 50 years on as well as other key moments in women's industrial history. As well this session we're excited to host the Striking Women exhibition, an exhibition curated by Professors Anitha, exploring the history of industrial action led by South Asian women in the UK. Get your tickets on Headfirst: hdfst.uk/e145672

📣 Coming up on Tuesday! How far can we go in challenging capitalist ideology? Are PE teachers a part of the Repressive State Apparatus? We recommend reading "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses" by Althusser, to get your brain juices flowing before the event: drive.google.com/file/d/1qs4Zhi… 🎟️ hdfst.uk/e148709

Should the left engage with parliamentary politics? Is Your Party dead? Are the Greens the real socialists? Joining us for a discussion on if and how the left should engage in Parliamentary Politics is Chris Saltmarsh (@chris_saltmarsh)! Chris is a socialist climate activist and writer. He was a candidate in the Your Party CEC elections on the Grassroots Left slate and is a founding member of Eco-Socialist Horizon. Get your tickets to join in the discussion on Headfirst: hdfst.uk/e145672

We are very excited to be joined by Ian Allinson (@IanAllinson), author of Workers Can Win and founding member of Troublemakers at Work, and Steven R, rank-and-file NEU activist, who will be faciliating the workshop 'How can we radicalise our places of work?' The workshop will help us imagine what radical places of work look like and, importantly, how we get there! Get your tickets to the festival on Headfirst: hdfst.uk/e145672

Are we reproducing capitalism in our classrooms? Next Tuesday we discuss Althusser's ideas about capitalist ideology, and how the education system helps to spread it. 🎟️ Tickets on Headfirst: hdfst.uk/e148709 ⌚️ Tues 10th March - PRSC

What better way to ease yourself back into the festival on a Sunday morning than to come and screen-print tote bags and posters with your hungover comrades? Designs include the Bristol Transformed logo and radical (retro) propaganda. We are excited to announce that Black Lamp will be delivering a screen printing workshop at BT! They are a DIY screen printing collective, printing artwork on garments and on paper, based in Easton, Bristol. Black Lamp take their name from a secretive revolutionary organisation made up of political and industrial militants from 1801. At the time it was illegal for any group of working people to come together (combine) and negotiating wages or conditions at work, due to the combination act of 1799, making all union activity illegal. If you did organise you’d soon be shipped off to one of the colonies breaking rocks in indentured servitude. E P Thompson, credits Black Lamp as ‘integral to the birth of British working-class consciousness’.Get your festival tickets on Headfirst: hdfst.uk/e145672

At Bristol Transformed Festival we always have a free creche for our littlest lefties. This year the creche is being run by our very own Childcare Caucus for the first time! Please book a free childcare ticket on Headfirst and we'll be in touch: hdfst.uk/e145672 You can find more information about our Childcare Caucus, including bios of the core organisers on our website: bristoltransformed.co.uk/document/brist…