Event - SOLD OUT – Democracy May Not Exist: Astra Taylor with Shiri Shalmy

Event - Do Something: Kajal Odedra with Minnie Rahman

Event - CANCELLED Women of Westminster: Rachel Reeves with Diane Abbott and Diane Atkinson

Event - SOLD OUT – Democracy May Not Exist: Astra Taylor with Shiri Shalmy

Event - Do Something: Kajal Odedra with Minnie Rahman

Event - CANCELLED Women of Westminster: Rachel Reeves with Diane Abbott and Diane Atkinson

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WOMEN OF WESTMINSTER by Rachel Reeves

RISE UP, WOMEN! by Diane Atkinson

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10.16.2019 by Pages of Hackney //

Join us as we welcome writer and filmmaker Astra Taylor to discuss her new book, DEMOCRACY MAY NOT EXIST BUT WE'LL MISS IT WHEN IT'S GONE, with Shiri Shalmy.

Did democracy ever exist? Why is it no longer possible?

Democracy is in crisis. In every major company it has been stole by elites or in the hands of strong men. In democracy’s name we see a raft of policies that spread inequality and xenophobia worldwide. It is clear that democracy—the principle of government by and for the people - is not living up to its promise.

In fact, real democracy—inclusive and egalitarian—has in fact never existed. In this urgent and engaging book, Astra Taylor invites us to re-examine the term. Is democracy a means or an end? A process or a set of desired outcomes? What if the those outcomes, whatever they may be—peace, prosperity, equality, liberty, an engaged citizenry—can be achieved by non-democratic means? Or if an election leads to a terrible outcome? If democracy means rule by the people, what does it mean to rule and who counts as the people? The inherent paradoxes are too often unnamed and unrecognized. But to ignore them is no longer possible.

Democracy May Not Exist, but We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone offers a better understanding of what is possible, what we want, and why democracy is so hard to realize.

Astra Taylor is the author of The People's Platform (winner of the American Book Award) and made two documentary films, Zizek! and Examined Life. Taylor’s writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, n+1, and The Baffler, where she is a contributing editor. She lives in New York City.

Shiri Shalmy is a cultural worker and organiser. Over the years she has curated and produced a large number of public art exhibitions and projects, as well as work around radical education and organised labour. She is particularly interested in developing autonomous, self-organised structures around class politics and in movement building through direct action. She is a co-founder of Antiuniversity Now and an organiser with the grassroots campaigning trade union United Voices of the World.

10.10.2019 by Pages of Hackney //

Join as for a discussion of people power and grass-roots activism with change.org's UK Director, Kajal Odedra. Kajal will be reading from her new book, DO SOMETHING, before being joined in conversation by Minnie Rahman.

People power works and is changing the world around us.

This is a user's guide to activism by one of the UK's biggest names in grass-roots campaigning. Illustrated with lessons from the real world, it is a guide to creating change for anyone who has ever asked themselves 'why hasn't anyone done something about that?'

We are taught to believe that only a small group of people in society have the ability to change laws and company policies. That's simply not true any longer - each of is capable of using our experiences to change the world. We just need to use that thing that makes us different, and learn how to channel it.

Having worked as a campaigner for the last 12 years, Kajal Odedra of change.org - which is used by 17 million people in the UK - has learned the tricks of the trade that have traditionally been held in circles of power, and believes that everyone should know how to speak up and be heard. Her mission is to show people how to use their voice to make their community, politicians and CEOs take notice.

Do Something is a blueprint for creating change; an indispensable guide to inspire anyone feeling frustrated, no matter what the issue, to stand up and do something.

Kajal Odedra is UK Director at Change.org, the world’s largest online petition website with 200 million users worldwide and over 17 million in the UK, where she has helped strategise movements such as the petition to end tampon tax and the New Era Housing campaign. Kajal has worked in the campaigns and tech sector for over 10 years, is an advisor for the women in STEM group Ada’s List and founded the People of Colour initiative. Kajal lives and works in London.

Minnie Rahman is a writer and campaigner specialising in migrant’s rights, climate change and social justice. After working in both the European and UK Parliament for 5 years as an expert in Government policy, she moved on to help co-ordinate the campaign to uncover the Windrush scandal with the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants. Minnie is now leading on campaigns to scrap the “hostile environment” and to get new rights for undocumented migrants. She is also the creator of Inclusive Book Club.

09.04.2019 by Pages of Hackney //

In 1919 Nancy Astor was elected as the Member of Parliament for Plymouth Sutton, becoming the first woman MP to take her seat in the House of Commons. Her achievement was all the more remarkable given that women (and even then only some women) had only been entitled to vote for just over a year.

In the past 100 years, a total of 489 women have been elected to Parliament. Yet it was not until 2015 that the total number of women ever elected surpassed the number of male MPs in a single parliament. The achievements of these political pioneers have been remarkable – Britain has now had two female Prime Ministers and women MPs have made significant strides in fighting for gender equality from the earliest suffrage campaigns to Barbara Castle's fight for equal pay to Harriet Harman's recent legislation on the gender pay gap. Yet the stories of so many women MPs have too often been overlooked in political histories. In this book, Rachel Reeves brings many forgotten MPs out of the shadows and looks at the many battles fought by the Women of Westminster, from 1919 to 2019.

Featuring insightful and honest interviews with leading women from Theresa May, Dianne Abbot to Harriet Harman, Rachel Reeves MP celebrates the inspirational achievements of women in parliament over the course of the past 100 years.

From their marches on Parliament and 10 Downing Street, to the selling of their paper, through to the more militant activities of the Women's Social and Political Union, whose slogan 'Deeds Not Words!' resided over bombed pillar-boxes, as well as acts of arson and the slashing of great works of art; the women who participated in the movement endured police brutality, assault, imprisonment and force-feeding, all in the relentless pursuit of one goal: the right to vote.

Diane Atkinson celebrates the lives of the women who answered the call to 'Rise Up'; a richly diverse group of actresses and mill-workers, teachers and doctors, bootmakers and sweated workers. Rise Up, Women! brings these women to life in a stirring celebration of their grace, resilience and determination that changed the world forever.

Rachel Reeves is the Labour MP for Leeds West. Between 2010-2015, Reeves served on the opposition frontbench as Shadow Pensions Minister, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. Following the 2015 general election, Reeves joined the Treasury Select Committee and in July last year was elected Chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee.

Diane Abbott is the Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington. In 1987 she was the first black woman elected to Parliament, and is now the longest serving black MP in the House of Commons. Throughout her career, Diane has championed global justice, human rights, peace and security issues at home and abroad. She has been a vocal campaigner around race-relations, transparency and justice around policing, surveillance, Stop and Search, and detainment without trial. Since 2016 she has served as Shadow Home Secretary.

Diane Atkinson is the author of two illustrated history books, Suffragettes in Pictures and Funny Girls: Cartooning for Equality, and three biographies, Love & Dirt, Elsie and Mairi Go to War and The Criminal Conversation of Mrs Norton. A regular lecturer on the suffragettes at conferences and literary festivals, Diane Atkinson has also appeared on radio programmes including Woman's Hour, and has consulted on numerous television documentaries, as well as, most recently, the film Suffragette.

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