Tag Archives: resistance

Events

Wednesday 26th November 2025: Lipstick Traces: a secret history of the 20th Century by Griel Marcus

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On Wednesday 26th November 2025, from 7.30-9.30pm, Stroud Radical Reading Group will host a discussion of Lipstick Traces: a secret history of the 20th Century by Griel Marcus. We will meet at Redz Youth Hub, 6 Threadneedle St, GL5 1AF. Entry is free and anyone interested in the book is welcome – you don’t need to have read it to join us. See below for more information.

The book examines alternative histories of resistance and reads the archival record ‘against the grain’, exploring parallels between underground 20th century art movements such as Dada, the political theories that inspired French youth to revolt in May 1968 and the punk explosion in late-70s Britain. This is a big book, physically at least, so we will focus our discussion on the opening prologue and first chapter “The Last Sex Pistols Concert”. While the book follows on well from our previous readings, you do not need to have attended a Radical Reading Group session before to attend for this session.

Below in our resources section you can find a link to buy the book at a discount, a free PDF version of both the whole book, and the section we offer as a focus for our discussion, and free audio/visual resources. There is also more information about the book and Stroud Radical Reading Group events.

Entry to the reading group session is free and everyone is welcome – you do not need to have attended previous sessions, and we do our best to make the sessions welcoming to people who have not been to reading groups or similar settings like university seminars before. We encourage people to read as much of the book as possible, but you are welcome to attend to listen to the discussion without reading any of it.

About the book:

This book is about a single, serpentine fact: late in 1976 a record called ‘Anarchy in the UK’ was issued in London, and this event launched a transformation of pop music all over the world. Made by a four-man rock’n’roll band called the Sex Pistols, and written by singer Johnny Rotten, the song distilled, in crudely poetic form, a critique of modern society once set out by a small group of Paris-based intellectuals. First organised in 1952 as the Lettrist International, and refounded in 1957 at a conference of European avant-garde artists as the Situationist International, the group gained its greatest notoriety during the French revolt of May 1968, when its slogans were spray-painted across the walls of Paris, after which their critique was given up to history and the group disappeared. The group looked back to the surrealists of the 1920s, the Dadaists who made their names during and just after the First World War, the young Karl Marx, Saint-Just, various medieval heretics, and the Knights of the Round Table.

“Some people say a record or a film changed their life. In my case, it was a book. Griel Marcus’s Lipstick Traces did that back in 1990. It really was that important” – Nicky Wire, bassist and lyricist in the Manic Street Preachers

About the author

Greil Marcus (né Gerstley; born June 19, 1945) is an American author, music journalist and cultural critic. He is notable for producing scholarly and literary essays that place rock music in a broader framework of culture and politics.

His other books include Mystery Train (published in 1975), notable for placing rock and roll in the context of American cultural archetypes; Dead Elvis, a collection of writings about Elvis Presley, in 1991, Invisible Republic: Bob Dylan’s Basement Tapes, published in 1997, and Like a Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads – a book providing full analysis and context of the 1965 song.

Resources

LipstickTracesFocusDownload
LipstickTracesFullDownload

About our events

Stroud Radical Reading Group events are free to attend, though we will make a collection to cover venue hire costs – please bring some cash if you can afford it (a few pounds would be great).

We try to create a comfortable discussion space for everyone, including people who have not been part of a reading group or been to university. We do not want the sessions to feel like school – the idea is that everyone has something to contribute, even if primarily through finding the discussion texts difficult and having questions with other attendees can attempt to answer.

To ensure marginalised people feel welcome, we encourage care and thoughtful contributions that respect people’s identities and lives. We are an LGBTQ+ inclusive and anti-racist space.

Anyone is welcome to listen to the discussion, though we encourage contributions only from those who have read at least some of the book we are discussing.

There is an opportunity for more informal discussion after the session in the Ale House pub for anyone who wants to continue their evening.

About the venue

The venue for this session is Redz Youth Hub, a hub for organising, creativity, and community building. It’s a free space for young people to host their own events, workshops, and meetups. They’ve been hosting sessions by Mutiny: Stroud’s Youth Assembly and The RYSE – the Radical Youth Space for Educations – see their schedule for the rest of the year here, including sessions on the Peace Movement, Stroud Water riots, and decolonial action.

Redz is in central Stroud, close to the train station and bus station, with nearby stands to lock bikes, and parking for cars nearby at Fawkes Place or Church St car park. There is step-free access to the ground floor but for this session we will be meeting upstairs. Please get in touch if you’d like to get more of an idea of what the sessions are like or if you have any accessibility needs.

Get in touch
Facebook event – invite friends/receive reminders
Join the Stroud Radical Reading Facebook Group for online discussion with others who attend the discussions
Events

Wednesday 29th October 2025: Black History Month – Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments by Saidiya Hartman

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On Wednesday 29th October 2025, from 7.30-9.30pm, Stroud Radical Reading Group will host a discussion of Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments, Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women and Queer Radicals, Saidiya Hartman. We will meet at Redz Youth Hub, 6 Threadneedle St, GL5 1AF. Entry is free and anyone interested in the book is welcome – you don’t need to have read it to join us. See below for more information.

October is Black History Month and while this isn’t the only book of Black history we are discussing this year, it is a book that explore Black history.

Wayward Lives… look at how, at the dawn of the twentieth century, black women in the US were carving out new ways of living. The first generations born after emancipation, their struggle was to live as if they really were free.

Below in our resources section you can find a link to buy the book at a discount, content notes, free audio/visual resources and a 20 page excerpt from the book. There is also more information about the book and Stroud Radical Reading Group events.

Entry to the reading group session is free and everyone is welcome – you do not need to have attended previous sessions, and we do our best to make the sessions welcoming to people who have not been to reading groups or similar settings like university seminars before.

We encourage people to read the whole book, but you are welcome to attend to listen to the discussion without reading any of it. An excerpt, podcast interview, and youtube video are available for those who do not have the time or money for the whole book.

Content notes:

Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, Rape

Moderate: Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault

Also mentioned: Pedophilia, Slavery, Sexual harassment

Taken from Storygraph – click for more detail

About the book:

In Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments, Saidiya Hartman deploys both radical scholarship and profound literary intelligence to examine the transformation of intimate life that Black women in the generations born after emancipation instigated in the USA. With visionary intensity, she conjures their worlds, their dilemmas, their defiant brilliance.

These women refused to labour like slaves. Wrestling with the question of freedom, they invented forms of love and solidarity outside convention and law. These were the pioneers of free love, common-law and transient marriages, queer identities, and single motherhood – all deemed scandalous, even pathological, at the dawn of the twentieth century, though they set the pattern for the world to come.

About the author

Saidiya Hartman is an American academic and writer focusing on African-American studies. She is currently a professor at Columbia University in their English department. Her work focuses on African-American literature, cultural history, photography and ethics, and the intersections of law and literature.

As well as Wayward Lives, she is the author Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in Nineteenth-Century America (1997), Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route (2007)

Resources

About our events

Stroud Radical Reading Group events are free to attend, though we will make a collection to cover venue hire costs – please bring some cash if you can afford it (a few pounds would be great).

We try to create a comfortable discussion space for everyone, including people who have not been part of a reading group or been to university. We do not want the sessions to feel like school – the idea is that everyone has something to contribute, even if primarily through finding the discussion texts difficult and having questions with other attendees can attempt to answer.

To ensure marginalised people feel welcome, we encourage care and thoughtful contributions that respect people’s identities and lives. We are an LGBTQ+ inclusive and anti-racist space.

Anyone is welcome to listen to the discussion, though we encourage contributions only from those who have read at least some of the book we are discussing.

There is an opportunity for more informal discussion after the session in the Ale House pub for anyone who wants to continue their evening.

About the venue

The venue for this session is Redz Youth Hub, a hub for organising, creativity, and community building. It’s a free space for young people to host their own events, workshops, and meetups. They’ve been hosting sessions by Mutiny: Stroud’s Youth Assembly and The RYSE – the Radical Youth Space for Educations – see their schedule for the rest of the year here, including sessions on the Peace Movement, Stroud Water riots, and decolonial action.

Redz is in central Stroud, close to the train station and bus station, with nearby stands to lock bikes, and parking for cars nearby at Fawkes Place or Church St car park. It is one street over from John St – for those who have joined recent sessions at Creative Sustainability. Please get in touch if you’d like to get more of an idea of what the sessions are like or if you have any accessibility needs.

Get in touch
Facebook event – invite friends/receive reminders
Join the Stroud Radical Reading Facebook Group for online discussion with others who attend the discussions
Events

Wednesday 24th September 2025: Burn Out – The Emotional Experience of Political Defeat

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On Wednesday 24th September 2025, from 7.30-9.30pm, Stroud Radical Reading Group will host a discussion of Burnout: The Emotional Experience of Political Defeat at The Exchange, Brick Row, Stroud, GL5 1DF (free entry). Anyone is welcome. The session will be introduced by regular attendee, Helen.

An unending stream of grim news from our own country and around the world, on top of the struggles of living under capitalism and an increasingly authoritarian state can feel overwhelming. Our political ancestors have faced similar circumstances – how did organisers and activists of the past keep going? In Burnout, Hannah Proctor answers that question through historical examples, exploring “how revolutionary movements have balanced the grief of political defeat and lost hope, with the imminent needs of organising and continued resistance”.

Below in our resources section you can find a link to buy the book at a discount, and free audio/visual resources including a free excerpt from the book. There is also more information about the book and Stroud Radical Reading Group events.

Entry to the reading group session is free and everyone is welcome – you do not need to have attended previous sessions, and we do our best to make the sessions welcoming to people who have not been to reading groups or similar settings like university seminars before. The whole point is to help each other not only understand the book but relate it to our own lives and the actions we take – to read and discuss the book not only to change our minds, but to change the world.

We encourage people to read the whole book, but you are welcome to attend to listen to the discussion without reading any of it. An excerpt, podcast interview, and youtube video are available for those who do not have the time or money for the whole book.

About the book:

In the struggle for a better world, setbacks are inevitable. Defeat can feel overwhelming at times, but it has to be endured. How then do the people on the front line keep going? To answer that question, Hannah Proctor draws on historical resources to find out how revolutionaries and activists of the past kept a grip on hope.

Burnout considers despairing former Communards exiled to a penal colony in the South Pacific; exhausted Bolsheviks recuperating in sanatoria in the aftermath of the October Revolution; an ex-militant on the analyst’s couch relating dreams of ruined landscapes; Chinese peasants engaging in self-criticism sessions; a political organiser seeking advice from a spiritual healer; civil rights movement activists battling weariness; and a group of feminists padding a room with mattresses to scream about the patriarchy. Jettisoning self-help narratives and individualizing therapy talk, Proctor offers a different way forward – neither denial nor despair. Her cogent exploration of the ways militants have made sense of their own burnout demonstrates that it is possible to mourn and organise at once, and to do both without compromise.

About the author

Hannah Proctor is a historian of the human sciences interested in intersections between left-wing politics and the psy’ disciplines, Communist and anti-Communist theories of the mind, histories and theories of radical psychiatry, theories and practices of Freudo-Marxism, and emotional histories of the left.

She has written for both academic and non-academic publications on topics including rayon stockings, gender and the death drive, utopian pedagogy, Communist motherhood, wrinkles, the aesthetics of fMRI, Soviet babies, revolutionary commemoration, British antipsychiatry, mourning, Carl Jung’s influence on Jordan Peterson, depression, perfume and Ulrike Meinhof’s brain.

Resources

  • Buy Burn Out from the Yellow Lighted Bookshop – RRP £14.99, £12.74 with discount (saving £2.25). To get a 15% discount: Look at your “basket”, and enter the “couponcode” 25stroudradical. Pick up book from Nailsworth, Tetbury or Chalford shops, or get books delivered to your door for £3.50 postage. If posting books, you may wish to buy other books we are reading this year.
  • Read “Beyond Left Melancholy“, a 4,500 word excerpt from the book – approximately 30 minute read.
  • Listen to an 80 minute interview (embedded below) with host, Eleanor Penny, author Hannah Proctor and Ajay Singh Chaudhary (author of a different book – The Exhausted of the Earth: Politics in a Burning World) discussing how revolutionary movements have balanced the grief of political defeat and lost hope, with the imminent needs of organising and continued resistance.
  • Watch a 90 minute interview with the author hosted by Haymarket Books (embedded below), discussing how to maintain hope in the face of despair, with Hannah Proctor and Sarah Jaffe.
  • Explore Hannah Proctor’s website with further links to her work and reviews.

About our events

Stroud Radical Reading Group events are free to attend, though we will make a collection to cover venue hire costs – please bring some cash.

We try to create a comfortable discussion space for everyone, including people who have not been part of a reading group or been to university. We do not want the sessions to feel like school – the idea is that everyone has something to contribute, even if primarily through finding the discussion texts difficult and having questions with other attendees can attempt to answer.

To ensure marginalised people feel welcome, we encourage care and thoughtful contributions that respect people’s identities and lives. We are an LGBTQ+ inclusive and anti-racist space.

Anyone is welcome to listen to the discussion, though we encourage contributions only from those who have read at least some of the book we are discussing.

There is an opportunity for more informal discussion after the session in the Ale House pub for anyone who wants to continue their evening.

About the venue

We will meet in the Robert Owen Room at The Exchange, Brick Row, Stroud. This is the smaller of two meeting rooms at The Exchange, at the end of the covered walkway, which provides step-free access. There is a small kitchen next door – which we’ll use to provide people with water. There are two toilets, including an accessible toilet. The Exchange is a short walk (10 minutes) from Stroud Bus Station or Train Station. There is a small amount of parking at the venue, and more parking in the nearby Church St car park. The room is clean and bright. We pay for the room, so will collect donations at the end of the session – please bring a little cash if you can – approimately £3 would be great.

Get in touch
Facebook event – invite friends/receive reminders
Join the Stroud Radical Reading Facebook Group for online discussion with others who attend the discussions

Events

Wednesday 27th August 2025: Toussaint Louverture, The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History

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On Wednesday 27th August 2025, from 7.30-9.30pm, Stroud Radical Reading Group will host a discussion of Toussaint Louverture, The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History (free entry). We will meet at Redz Youth Hub, 6 Threadneedle St, GL5 1AF. See below for more information on the venue.

The session will be introduced by long-time regular attendee, Asha.

In 1791, the enslaved people of the most prized French sugar plantation colony, San Domingo, revolted against their masters. For over twelve years, against a backdrop of the French Revolution, they fought an epic black liberation struggle for control of the island.

Theirs was the first and only successful slave revolution. It was the creation of Haiti as a nation, the first independent black republic outside of Africa, and an international inspiration to the persecuted and enslaved. This month’s book is the impassioned and beautifully drawn story of the Haitian Revolution and its incredible leader: Toussaint Louverture, based on a play by C.L.R. James – whose book The Black Jacobins is highly revered, and which we discussed as a group in October 2020.

Below in our resources section you can find a link to buy the book at a discount, content notes, and free audio/visual resources including a 20 page excerpt from the book. There is also more information about the book and Stroud Radical Reading Group events.

Entry to the reading group session is free and everyone is welcome – you do not need to have attended previous sessions, and we do our best to make the sessions welcoming to people who have not been to reading groups or similar settings like university seminars before.

We encourage people to read the whole book, but you are welcome to attend to listen to the discussion without reading any of it. An excerpt, podcast interview, and youtube video are available for those who do not have the time or money for the whole book.

Content notes:

Discussions of slavery, non-graphic portrayals of scars from beatings, period depictions of racism and classism, depictions of slave ships and drowning, non-graphic portrayal of armed conflict.

About the book:

The end of slavery started in what was then San Domingo. In 1791, the enslaved people of the most prized French sugar plantation colony revolted against their masters. For over twelve years, against a backdrop of the French Revolution, they fought an epic black liberation struggle for control of the island.

Theirs was the first and only successful slave revolution. It was the creation of Haiti as a nation, the first independent black republic outside of Africa, and an international inspiration to the persecuted and enslaved. This is the impassioned and beautifully drawn story of the Haitian Revolution and its incredible leader: Toussaint Louverture.

Further background

The text of this graphic novel is a play by C. L. R. James that opened in London in 1936 with Paul Robeson in the title role. For the first time, black actors appeared on the British stage in a work by a black playwright. The script had been lost for almost seventy years when a draft copy was discovered among James’s archives.

Toussaint Louverture is an indispensable companion work to The Black Jacobins (1938), James’s classic account of Haiti’s revolutionary struggle for liberation.

The extraordinary drama has been reimagined by artists Nic Watts and Sakina Karimjee.

Nic Watts is a freelance illustrator who has illustrated a range of works including newspapers, booklets and comics. This is his first graphic novel.

Sakina Karimjee is a theatre designer and draughtsperson. She co-produced the book with Watts.

Resources

About our events

Stroud Radical Reading Group events are free to attend, though we will make a collection to cover venue hire costs – please bring some cash.

We try to create a comfortable discussion space for everyone, including people who have not been part of a reading group or been to university. We do not want the sessions to feel like school – the idea is that everyone has something to contribute, even if primarily through finding the discussion texts difficult and having questions with other attendees can attempt to answer.

To ensure marginalised people feel welcome, we encourage care and thoughtful contributions that respect people’s identities and lives. We are an LGBTQ+ inclusive and anti-racist space.

Anyone is welcome to listen to the discussion, though we encourage contributions only from those who have read at least some of the book we are discussing.

There is an opportunity for more informal discussion after the session in the Ale House pub for anyone who wants to continue their evening.

About the venue

The venue for this session is Redz Youth Hub, a hub for organising, creativity, and community building. It’s a free space for young people to host their own events, workshops, and meetups. They’ve been hosting sessions by Mutiny: Stroud’s Youth Assembly and The RYSE – the Radical Youth Space for Educations – see their schedule for the rest of the year here, including sessions on the Peace Movement, Stroud Water riots, and decolonial action.

Redz is in central Stroud, close to the train station and bus station, with nearby stands to lock bikes, and parking for cars nearby at Fawkes Place or Church St car park. It is one street over from John St – for those who have joined recent sessions at Creative Sustainability. Please get in touch if you’d like to get more of an idea of what the sessions are like or if you have any accessibility needs.

Get in touch
Facebook event – invite friends/receive reminders
Join the Stroud Radical Reading Facebook Group for online discussion with others who attend the discussions
Events

Wednesday 23rd July 2025: Syria Speaks

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On Wednesday 23rd July 2025, from 7.30-9.30pm, Stroud Radical Reading Group will host a discussion of Syria Speaks Art and Culture from the Frontline (free entry). We will meet at Coco Caravan (a short distance from the town centre train or bus station, with a limited amount of parking available nearby at Fawkes Place). Coco Caravan are hosting an exhibition of work by Cammy Leon, “Hope & Imagining – Syria’s past and future”, which will run from 10th July to 9th August. Before the reading group session, there will be an event at the exhibition from 5.30-7pm, for people to gather, explore the artwork, buy hot chocolate and hopefully poetry from a Syrian living locally (entry with a donation to the White Helmets).

Syria Speaks is not a conventional book—it’s a kaleidoscopic collection of art, stories, essays, poems, cartoons, photography, and graffiti that documents the Syrian people’s creative resistance during the early years of the revolution that began in 2011 (written in 2012 and 2013). Compiled by Syrian and international editors, it gives voice to those who dared to challenge repression with words, images, and dreams.

The book is diverse in medium and voice—from tragic personal narratives to bold graphic art, from lyrical poetry to bitter satire—and it is united by a deep commitment to freedom of expression and the courage to imagine something beyond dictatorship and violence.

Below in our resources section you can find a link to buy the book at a discount, content notes, free audio/visual resources, and a recently published short article about the current situation in Syria. There is also more information about the book and its editors.

Entry to the reading group session is free and everyone is welcome – you do not need to have attended previous sessions, and we do our best to make the sessions welcoming to people who have not been to reading groups or similar settings like university seminars before.

We encourage people to read the whole book, but you are welcome to attend to listen to the discussion without reading any of it. We have collated some short sections, audio-visual material and an article for those who do not have the time or money for the whole book (these are available as previews on Google Books):

  • Introduction and Hama ’82 (pages vii-1)
  • Between the cultures of sectarianism & citizenship by Hassan Abbas (pages 48-59)
  • The Art of Persuasion by Anonymous Artists Collective (pages 66-77)

This event follows our event on Burning Country in June last year, and the fall of the Assad regime since.

Content notes:

The book deals with repression, war and genocide – involving specifically violence, murder, death, torture, police brutality, rape and sexual violence, injury, grief, death of parents, blood and gore.

About the book:

In Syria, culture became the critical line of defence against tyranny. Villagers have joined the cultural frontline alongside urban intellectuals, artists, writers and filmmakers and to create art and literature that challenge official narratives. With contributions by over fifty artists and writers, both established and emerging, Syria Speaks explores the explosion of creativity and free expression by the Syrian people.

They have become their own publishers on the Internet and formed anonymous artists collectives which are actively working in their country’s war zones. The art and writing featured in this book, including literature, poems and songs as well as cartoons, political posters and photographs, document and interpret the momentous changes that have shifted the frame of reality so drastically in Syria.

About the editors:

Malu Halasa is a London-based writer, journalist, and editor with a focus on Palestine, Iran, and Syria. She is Literary Editor at The Markaz Review, and was the curator of Art of the Palestinian Poster at the P21 Gallery, as part the Shubbak: A Window on Contemporary Arab Culture Festival, from 23 May to 14 June 2025.

Zaher Omareen is a Syrian writer and researcher based in London. He has worked on independent cultural initiatives in Syria and Europe, and co-curated exhibitions on the art of the Syrian uprising. He is currently working on a collection of short stories drawn from the collective memories of the 1982 Hama massacre.

Nawara Mahfoud is a Syrian journalist and documentary producer who has worked for the New York Times. She blogs for the New Yorker, among other publications.

About the Exhibition 

A bold collection of four digital art prints centres the courage and defiance of the Syrian revolution. Through striking visual storytelling, two of the series honours key figures who embodied the spirit of resistance: Mazen Hamada, Razan Zaitouneh, Samira Khalil, and May Skaf—each a symbol of unwavering dignity in the face of repression.

Two of the works evoke collective liberation: one captures the moment Aleppo was liberated, Syrian and Palestinian flags raised in solidarity; the other shows a quiet revolution—people cycling freely through Damascus, reclaiming joy where it was once forbidden by the brutal Assad regime. This is a tribute to memory, movement, humanity and a future that refuses to die.

The exhibition is a fundraiser for the White Helmets. There will be an auction for the artworks, and donations collected on entry to the exhibition event and during the exhibition.

Resources

  • Buy Syria Speaks from the Yellow Lighted Bookshop – RRP £14.99, £12.74 with discount (saving £2.25). To get a 15% discount: Look at your “basket”, and enter the “couponcode” 25stroudradical. Pick up book from Nailsworth, Tetbury or Chalford shops, or get books delivered to your door for £3.50 postage. If posting books, you may wish to buy other books we are reading this year
  • This short article gives a vivid snapshot of early post-Assad Syria—where grassroots activists of all ages are reclaiming political space, pushing back against HTS’s religious conservatism, and building the beginnings of a pluralistic, left alternative rooted in social and economic justice.
  • Listen to this 6 month old podcast episode dedicated to Omar Aziz, Razan Zeituneh and Alan Kurdi “Long Live the Syrian Revolution” (30 minutes, Politically Depressed podcast, embedded below).
  • 8 month old podcast “Roundtable on Syria” (90 minutes, The Fire These Times podcast). “For episode 178, From the Periphery collective members Leila Al-Shami, Elia Ayoub, Karena Avedissian, and Ayman Makarem gathered together for a roundtable to discuss the latest developments in Syria and to provide a historical and political background to help understand the current moment.”
  • Cartoon by Anarchist activist Omar Aziz, “Revolution in Every Country Comic Series: Episode 1 – Syria: Erasing an Inconvenient Revolution“
  • Video recording of panel discussion from the “Discover Syria in Stroud” event held on Saturday 11th January 2025, marking the fall of the Assad regime. After a screening of For Sama, Emma from CSSD and Stroud Against Racism hosted a panel discussion, featuring Leila Al-Shami, British-Syrian activist and writer. She is co-author of ‘Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War’ and is co-founder of From The Periphery media collective; Robin Yassin-Kassab, a regular media commentator on Syria and the Middle East. He is the author of the novel The Road from Damascus (Penguin, 2009), contributor to Syria Speaks (Saqi, 2014), and – with Leila Al-Shami – the co-author of ‘Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War’; Rami Emad, a Syrian Refugee living locally (embedded below)

About our events

Stroud Radical Reading Group events are free to attend, though we will make a collection to cover venue hire costs – please bring some cash.

We try to create a comfortable discussion space for everyone, including people who have not been part of a reading group or been to university. We do not want the sessions to feel like school – the idea is that everyone has something to contribute, even if primarily through finding the discussion texts difficult and having questions with other attendees can attempt to answer.

To ensure marginalised people feel welcome, we encourage care and thoughtful contributions that respect people’s identities and lives. We are an LGBTQ+ inclusive and anti-racist space.

Anyone is welcome to listen to the discussion, though we encourage contributions only from those who have read at least some of the book we are discussing.

There is an opportunity for more informal discussion after the session in the Ale House pub for anyone who wants to continue their evening.

About the venue

We will meet at the Coco Caravan Cacao House (2 Bedford St, GL5 1AY). This is a venue connected to a chocolate studio which brings together people to share different cacao knowledges, specially selected chocolate varieties, and experience chocolate as a plant food of immense cultural, historical, and spiritual value.

This is close to the train station and not far from the bus station. There are stands to lock bikes to on the High St nearby, and parking for cars nearby at Fawkes Place or Church St car park. There are no toilets at the venue. There step free access the building. The room is well lit. Please get in touch if you’d like to get more of an idea of what the sessions are like or if you have any accessibility needs.

Get in touch
Facebook event – invite friends/receive reminders
Join the Stroud Radical Reading Facebook Group for online discussion with others who attend the discussions
Events

Wednesday 28th May 2025 – Radicalism and Resistance in Palestine

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On Wednesday 28th May 2025, from 7.30-9.30pm, Stroud Radical Reading Group will host a discussion of two books looking at Radicalism and Resistance in Palestine. We suggest people pick one or other of the books to read in full, or read excerpts from both – see below for links to buy the books at a discount from the local Yellow Lighted Bookshop and a variety of free text, audio, and visual resources relevant to the books.

We’re reading books about Palestine in May, because of the ongoing genocide, occupation and apartheid, but also specifically because May is the month in which Palestinians mark Nakba day – held annually on 15th May. The Nakba, which translates as ‘the catastrophe’, is the term Palestinians use to describe the ethnic cleansing and expulsion of most of the Indigenous people of Palestine through displacement and dispossession specifically of the 1948 Palestine War – and the ongoing suppression of their culture, identity, political rights, and national aspirations by Israel. This year will be the 77th anniversary of the Nakba, and various organisations are calling for action on/around the date, with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement calling for mass global mobilizations and civil disobedience on 15 May and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign organising a national demonstration in London on 17th May, for example.

Our session will take place after that date, but look at the context – a long history of various forms of resistance – and the calls to act ourselves, lessons, and inspiration we can take from these.

We will meet at Creative Sustainability’s shopfront space at 10 John St, GL5 2HA (a short distance from the town centre train or bus station, with parking available nearby at Church St).

Entry is free and everyone is welcome – you do not need to have attended previous sessions, and we do our best to make the sessions welcoming to people who have not been to reading groups or similar settings like university seminars before.

More information about the books, venue and how sessions work is below.

About the books:

Popular Resistance in Palestine, A History of Hope and Empowerment, Mazin B. Qumsiyeh: “Armed resistance, suicide bombings, and rocket attacks populate the Western media’s depiction of Palestinian resistance. Synthesising data from hundreds of original sources, Dr Mazin Qumsiyeh provides the most comprehensive study of the always creative, often peaceful, civil resistance in Palestine. Successes, failures, missed opportunities and challenges are chronicled through hundreds of stories from over 100 years of Palestinian resistance.”

“The book critically and comparatively surveys uprisings under Ottoman rule, against the Balfour Declaration and the Oslo Accords, all the way up to the Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions movement. The compelling human stories told in this book will inspire people of all faiths and political backgrounds to chart a better and more informed direction for a future of peace with justice.”

Professor Qumsiyeh is founder and director of the Palestine Museum of Natural History (PMNH) and the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability (PIBS) at Bethlehem University where he teaches.

Interviews with Radical Palestinian Women: the interviews compiled by Shoal Collective cover “their struggles on all fronts – against colonialism, white supremacy, conservatism, patriarchy, state control – and occupation.”

“The idea for this book came out of a concern that solidarity movements have a tendency only to engage with Palestinians about their fight against the Israeli occupation. Sometimes this can be a barrier to seeing them as comrades in our intersecting struggles.”

“10 radical Palestinian women spoke to the authors between 2018-2021. Listening to their voices will help people outside of Palestine better understand them as allies in our global struggles for freedom.”

Shoal is a radical research and writers’ collective which produces news articles, investigative research, opinion, analysis and theoretical writing in support of social movements that aim to bring about social change.

Buy the books

When looking at your “basket” enter the “couponcode” 25stroudradical for a 15% discount. Pick up book from Nailsworth, Tetbury or Chalford shops, or get books delivered to your door for £3.50 postage. If posting books, you may wish to buy other books we are reading this year

Free Resources

About our events and the venue

Stroud Radical Reading Group events are free to attend, though we will make a collection to cover venue hire costs – please bring some cash.

We try to create a comfortable discussion space for everyone, including people who have not been part of a reading group or been to university. We do not want the sessions to feel like school – the idea is that everyone has something to contribute, even if primarily through finding the discussion texts difficult and having questions with other attendees can attempt to answer.

To ensure marginalised people feel welcome, we encourage care and thoughtful contributions that respect people’s identities and lives. We are an LGBTQ+ inclusive and anti-racist space.

Anyone is welcome to listen to the discussion, though we encourage contributions only from those who have read at least some of the book we are discussing.

There is an opportunity for more informal discussion after the session in the Ale House pub for anyone who wants to continue their evening.

About the venue

We will meet at the Creative Sustainability shopfront space at 10 John St, GL5 2HA (round the corner from Iceland and next to the Ale House pub). This is close to the train station and not far from the bus station. There are stands to lock bikes to outside, and parking for cars nearby at Church St car park. There are no toilets at the venue. There is a small step to access the building, which is then step free). The room is well lit. Please get in touch if you’d like to get more of an idea of what the sessions are like or if you have any accessibility needs.

Get in touch
Facebook event – invite friends/receive reminders
Join the Stroud Radical Reading Facebook Group for online discussion with others who attend the discussions
Events

November 27th 2024 – An Autobiography by Angela Davis

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On Wednesday 27th November 2024, from 7.30-9.30pm, Stroud Radical Reading Group will host a discussion of An Autobiography by Angela Davis. Entry is free and everyone is welcome. We will meet at 10 John St, GL5 2AH.

The book is a powerful and commanding account of the life of trailblazing political activist Angela Davis, detailing her journey from a childhood on Dynamite Hill in Birmingham, Alabama to one of the most significant political trials of the century. From her political activity in a New York high school to her work with the U.S. Communist Party, the Black Panther Party, and the Soledad Brothers; and from the faculty of the Philosophy Department at UCLA to the FBI’s list of the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. Told with warmth, brilliance, humour and conviction, this autobiography is a classic account of a life in struggle with echoes in our own time.

Find links to buy the book and free resources related to it below, as well as information about the venue for our events and our group. If you do not have time to read the full book, we recommend focusing on Part 4 – Flames. Download part 4 here (this is still a big section, over 100 pages). We welcome contributions to the discussion from anyone who has engaged with any of the resources – even if they haven’t finished Part 4 or the book, and anyone to join us to listen in even if they have not been able to engage with any of the resources.

We’ll be following this event with a discussion on autobiography by Benjamin Zephaniah in December, and it follows our discussion of “Speak Out!” – an anthology of work by the Brixton Black Women’s Group in October – but you are welcome to attend this event alone, and do not have been to any of our previous events to come along to this one.

Resources

AngelaDavisAutobiography-4FlamesDownload

About our events and the venue

Stroud Radical Reading Group events are free to attend, though we will make a collection to cover costs – please bring some cash. We try to create a comfortable discussion space for everyone, including people who have not been part of a reading group or been to university. Anyone is welcome to listen to the discussion, though we encourage contributions only from those who have read at least some of the book we are discussing.

We will meet at 10 John St, GL5 2AH. This is near the centre of town, a short walk from Stroud Railway Station and a slightly longer walk from the Merrywalks Bus Station. There are stands to lock bikes to outside, and parking for cars nearby in either Brunel Mall, Fawkes Place, or Church St car park. There is a low step to enter the building, which is flat. There are no toilet facilities. Please get in touch if you’d like to get more of an idea of what the sessions are like or if you have any accessibility needs.

Events

October 30th 2024 – Speak Out! The Brixton Black Women’s Group

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On Wednesday 30th October 2024, from 7.30-9.30pm, Stroud Radical Reading Group will host a discussion of Speak Out, A Brixton Black Women’s Group Reader, edited by Milo Miller. Entry is free and everyone is welcome. We will meet at 10 John St, GL5 2AH. Find links to buy the book and free resources related to it below, as well as information about the venue for our events and our group.

The book brings together the writings of Brixton Black Women’s Group for the first time. Established in response to the lack of interest in women’s issues experienced in male-dominated Black organisations, the Brixton Black Women’s Group’s aim was to create a distinct space where women of African and Asian descent could meet to focus on political, social and cultural issues as they affected black women. BBWG published its own newsletter, Speak Out, which kept alive the debate about the relevance of feminism to black politics and provided a black women’s perspective on immigration, housing, health and culture.

We’ll be discussing the book in UK Black History Month, and following it with discussions on autobiographies by Angela Davis and Benjamin Zephaniah at our events in November and December, but you do not need to attend all three events or have been to any of our previous events to come along to this one.

Resources

About our events and the venue

Stroud Radical Reading Group events are free to attend, though we will make a collection to cover costs – please bring some cash. We try to create a comfortable discussion space for everyone, including people who have not been part of a reading group or been to university. Anyone is welcome to listen to the discussion, though we encourage contributions only from those who have read at least some of the book we are discussing.

We will meet at 10 John St, GL5 2AH. This is near the centre of town, a short walk from Stroud Railway Station and a slightly longer walk from the Merrywalks Bus Station. There are stands to lock bikes to outside, and parking for cars nearby in either Brunel Mall, Fawkes Place, or Church St car park. There is a low step to enter the building, which is flat. There are no toilet facilities. Please get in touch if you’d like to get more of an idea of what the sessions are like or if you have any accessibility needs.

Reviews

“For a new generation of feminist thinkers the relevance of this collection cannot be overstated. Intended for local distribution, the articles are a testament to the continuous theoretical study, fierce discipline, comradeliness and revolutionary love central to resistance against the most violent arms of the state…A balm, an instruction manual a historical object that defies temporality and a response to the forces that seek to depoliticise the history of racialised women’s struggle for freedom in Britain.

Lola Olufemi, author of Feminism Interrupted [which we discussed in 2021]

“An important testament to the pioneering Black British feminists of the 1970s and ’80s who set up groups and centres, and bravely and brilliantly campaigned against discrimination and for social change in the face of extreme opposition. Long ignored and undervalued, their grassroots activism adds unique and essential layers to the recorded histories of the era”

Bernardine Evaristo, author of Girl, Woman, Other

Events

June 26th 2024: Burning Country – Syrians in Revolution and War

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On Wednesday 26th June 2024, from 7.30-9.30pm, Stroud Radical Reading Group will host a discussion of Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War by Robin Yassin-Kassab and Leila Al-Shami. We will meet at 10 John St, GL5 2AH. Below you can find links to a free copy of the book as a pdf, to buy a physical copy of the book at a discount, information about the event, venue and free resources.

In 2011, many Syrians took to the streets of Damascus to demand the overthrow of the government of Bashar al-Assad. Burning Country explores the horrific and complicated reality of life in present-day Syria.

You can buy the book from the Yellow Lighted Bookshop (Nailsworth, Tetbury or Chalford pick up or delivery at £3.50) via the previous link – RRP £14.99. When looking at your “basket” enter the “couponcode” stroudradical24 for a 12% discount – final book price £13.19, a saving of £1.80).

Event format

We are very fortunate that one of the authors, Robin Yassin-Kassab, is hoping to join us half way through the meeting to answer questions about the book. We will also be joined by Rami, a Syrian refugee living locally.

About our events and the venue

Stroud Radical Reading Group events are free to attend, though we will make a collection to cover costs – please bring some cash. Anyone is welcome to listen to the discussion, though we encourage contributions only from those who have read at least some of the book we are discussing. We try to create a comfortable discussion space for everyone, including people who have not been part of a reading group or been to university.

We will meet at 10 John St, GL5 2AH. This is near the centre of town, a short walk from Stroud Railway Station and a slightly longer walk from the Merrywalks Bus Station. There are stands to lock bikes to outside, and parking for cars nearby in either Brunel Mall, Fawkes Place, or Church St car park. There is a low step to enter the building, which is flat. There are no toilet facilities. Please get in touch if you’d like to get more of an idea of what the sessions are like or if you have any accessibility needs.

About the book and authors

“Burning Country explores the horrific and complicated reality of life in present-day Syria with unprecedented detail and sophistication, drawing on new first hand testimonies from opposition fighters, exiles lost in an archipelago of refugee camps, and courageous human rights activists among many others. These stories are expertly interwoven with a trenchant analysis of the brutalisation of the conflict and the militarisation of the uprising, of the rise of the Islamists and sectarian warfare, and the role of governments in Syria and elsewhere in exacerbating those violent processes. With chapters focusing on ISIS and Islamism, regional geopolitics, the new grassroots revolutionary organisations, and the worst refugee crisis since World War Two, Burning Country is a vivid and groundbreaking look at a modern-day political and humanitarian nightmare.”

Publishers description (Pluto Press)

Robin Yassin-Kassab is a regular media commentator on Syria and the Middle East. He is the author of the novel The Road from Damascus (Penguin, 2009) and contributor to Syria Speaks (Saqi, 2014).

Leila Al-Shami has worked with the human rights movement in Syria and across in the Middle East. She is a founding member of Tahrir-ICN, a network that aimed to connect anti-authoritarian struggles across the Middle East, North Africa and Europe.

Free resources:

Events

Wednesday 27th September 2023: Disaster Anarchy by Rhiannon Firth

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On Wednesday 27th September 2023, from 7.30-9.30pm, Stroud Radical Reading Group will discuss Disaster Anarchy: Mutual Aid and Radical Action by Rhiannon Firth. The book looks at the disasters of Hurricane Sandy, Covid-19, and the social movements that mobilised relief in their wake – often on anarchist principles, contrasting these with the “Disaster Capitalism” and ensuring that collective solidarity in a dangerous world isn’t missed in academic “Disaster Studies”.

As usual we’ll discuss what we made of the book and how it might be relevant to us in our own lives. We enourage people to read the book but you are also welcome even if you haven’t read the book – to listen to the discussion and ask questions. This book is the first in a 3-part series on Crisis, Mutual Aid, and Radical Action, which will also cover work by Mike Davis and the Care Collective (full details to follow). You don’t have to attend all the events in the series, but you are invited to!

On this webpage you can find details to buy the book at a discount, free resources, and information about the author, the book, how our sessions work, and the venue. We’re planning to once again be at the SISTER Summer School – but as this is a building Stroud in Internationalist Solidarity Together for Earth Repairs (SISTER) have reclaimed on Lansdown Road.

Till the end of August, you can get a 50% discount on Disaster Anarchy from publishers Pluto Press – making it £9.99 instead of £19.99.

After August, the book is available from Yellow Lighted Bookshop for £19.99, and you should be able to get a 12% discount: after adding the book to your ‘basket’, view your basket where there is an option to enter a ‘Coupon code’. Add the code “StroudRadical23” and click/tap “Apply coupon” (final cost should then be £17.59).

Freely available resources related to the book are available below. We like to ensure everyone can attendee our sessions and get something out of them even if they can’t afford to buy a copy of the book or the time to read it. We would encourage people to read/listen to as much as possible, but you are welcome to attend and listen along even if you are unable to engage with any of the below.

Free resources

About the author and the book

Rhiannon Firth is currently a lecturer in Sociology at UCL. She is the author of two books: Utopian Politics: Citizenship and Practice and Coronavirus, Class and Mutual Aid in the UK. She is active in social movements and popular education projects in London.

Publishers Pluto Press say:

“Anarchists have been central in helping communities ravaged by disasters, stepping in when governments wash their hands of the victims. Looking at Hurricane Sandy, Covid-19, and the social movements that mobilised relief in their wake, Disaster Anarchy is an inspiring and alarming book about collective solidarity in an increasingly dangerous world.

As climate change and neoliberalism converge, mutual aid networks, grassroots direct action, occupations and brigades have sprung up in response to this crisis with considerable success. Occupy Sandy was widely acknowledged to have organised relief more effectively than federal agencies or NGOs, and following Covid-19 the term ‘mutual aid’ entered common parlance.

However, anarchist-inspired relief has not gone unnoticed by government agencies. Their responses include surveillance, co-option, extending at times to violent repression involving police brutality. Arguing that disaster anarchy is one of the most important political phenomena to emerge in the twenty-first century, Rhiannon Firth shows through her research on and within these movements that anarchist theory and practice is needed to protect ourselves from the disasters of our unequal and destructive economic system.”

Endorsements:

‘Commendable – a book that prepares us to think about and react to system failures’ – Peter Gelderloos

‘Firth bridges the theories and methodologies in the continuing development of anarchist and liberatory frameworks of decentralised disaster responses, first articulated after Hurricane Katrina. They demonstrate through personal histories and analysis deeper paths forward in anarchist processes and practices that allow our liberatory imaginations to resist the collapse while creating viable alternatives without state coercion or interference’ – scott crow, author of ‘Black Flags and Windmills: Hope , Anarchy and the Common Ground Collective’

‘A clear, timely and rigorous account of anarchist responses to catastrophes. It avoids romanticisation, as Rhiannon Firth incisively unpicks state and corporate strategies of co-option’ – Benjamin Franks, Senior Lecturer in Social and Political Philosophy, University of Glasgow