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The Tressell Exhibition at the Working Class Movement Library in Salford was organised by Dave Harker and Frank Ellis. It opened on 3 February 2011, the 100th anniversary of Robert Tressell's death, with the support of Kate Richardson, Sara Livesey and Jane Dinsdale. Stephen Lowe, the internationally-known playwright, and Lol Hunt of UCATT, gave the keynote speeches. The Exhibition was originally intended to close on 10 March, but was so successful in attracting new people into WCML that the Trustees were happy to extend until 25 March.
The Tressell Exhibition was warmly reviewed by the Salford Star on 5 February, and a tiny announcement appeared in the Socialist Worker dated 19 March.
During 2011 Dave and Kate spoke at various venues.
22 January Independent Working Class Education group seminar, Sheffield
29 January The TUC Library, London Metropolitan University
1 February Working Class Movement Library, Salford
3 March The Roscoe Occupation, Manchester University
24 April The BBC Big History Weekend, St.George's Hall, Liverpool
16 June The North East Labour History Society, Newcastle
8 July The North East Shop Stewards' Network, Crook
3 September Cleveland Trade Union & Labour Movement History Society, Middlesbrough
20 September University of Brighton conference, Hastings
26 September Public meeting organised by Anarchists, Huddersfield
6 November Westmoreland & Lonsdale Labour Party, Kendal
12 November Independent Working Class Education group, Northern College, Barnsley.
On 16 April Dave, Kate, Sara and Frank organised 'The Sixty-Five' at WCML, which brought six MTUC delegates together with key people in several rank and file groups, including the Construction Safety Campaign, Greater Manchester Hazards, the Liverpool and District Victims of Asbestos Support Group, one of the campaigns for justice for the Shrewsbury pickets, two anarchist networks, as well as the architect who helped Paul Foot to expose the Ronan Point scandal, one of the victimised electricians and a victimised rep from Fujitsu. This event helped to raise the profile of Workers' Memorial Day.
On all these occasions, we raised Manchester TUC's profile and built unsectarian links that remain active in 2012. Relations with CSC, LDVASG, GMH, WCML and other key individuals, including Stephen Lowe, have become extremely cordial.
Stephen has recently told us about serious talk about a national tour of his original adaptation of RTP this spring. He has also confirmed that his musical adaptation of RTP will be staged by ISANGO, the Cape Town theatre company, at the 2000-seater Hackney Empire in London for eleven days in May. Stephen, the two artistic directors and the marketing people would like to stage an exhibition and have asked Dave to go to London – all expenses paid! – to brief them and ISANGO. They have also asked him to 'get information out to union and left-wing organisations'.
Dave Harker, 30 January 2012
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