Plebs and Peasants

Posted on September 25, 2012 by T.novoa

In September 2012, Mr. Mitchell, Chief Whip said to a policeman:

“Best you learn your fucking place…you don’t run this fucking government…You’re fucking plebs”.

Wobbling off on his bicycle he called over his shoulder.

“you haven’t heard the last of this”

From official Downing Street police log.

In June 1381, King Richard II retorted to villagers:

“You wretches are detestable both on land and on sea. You seek equality with the lords, but you are unworthy to live. Give this message to your fellows: rustics you are, and rustics you will always be. You will remain in bondage, not as before, but incomparably harsher. For as long as we live we will strive to suppress you, and your misery will be an example to posterity”

As described by one contemporary chronicle.

Nothing has changed in seven centuries.

Interested in what happened in 1381 and its consequences nowadays? Check out our documentary Despite the Poll Tax:

If questioned at all in the media most of the discourse about the inequities of poll tax concentrated on its economic injustices. Despite the Poll Tax however dug deeper into the largely ignored social and civil liberties implications of a colonial tax system whose earlier versions were considered unacceptable in the middle ages, leading to the Peasants Revolt of 1381 and were the original basis of the Pass Laws of apartheid South Africa.

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Screening of Battle of Trafalgar on May 7, 4:30pm – Free event

Posted on May 4, 2012 by admin

There is a new screening date for the Despite TV documentary Batttle of Trafalgar about the poll tax demonstration this Monday May 7th 4.30 pm. The screening is part of the Bread & Roses Festival organised by studiostrike.

Date: May 7 2012 (Monday, Bank Holiday)
Time: 4:30 pm
Venue: 68 Clapham Manor Street, London SW4 6DX
Or you can refer to this eventbrite page.

The Battle of Trafalgar gives an account of the anti-poll tax demonstration on 31st March 1990, one that is radically different from that presented by TV news. Eyewitnesses tell their stories against a backdrop of video footage showing the day’s events as they unfolded. This is one of the UK’s first camcorder activist films, made from amateur and freelance footage, unseen at the time and portraying a chillingly different vision of events from that shown in the media at the time.

Demonstrators’ testimonies raise some uncomfortable questions: Questions about public order policing, the independence and accountability of the media and the right to demonstrate.

Two decades later and these issues cannot be more prescient. With the rise of new social media and widespread recording technology, as well as increasingly repressive laws and policing powers and a pervasive 24-hour news culture – the relationship between the media and police in relation to the right to protest and the medium of film have only become more complex and problematic, as can be seen through the recent media representation and prosecution of student protesters and rioters.

Click here to order a DVD of Battle of Trafalgar.

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Bread & Roses film festival screens Battle of Trafalgar – free event

Posted on April 25, 2012 by Anais Bremond

Despite TV documentary Battle of Trafalgar will be screened Monday 30th April at 7pm during Law & Disorder followed by a panel discussion at the new film festival at Bread & Roses in Clapham. The event pays tribute to the 100th anniversary of the 1912 strike, led by female textile workers in Massachusetts. Marching for better pay and working conditions, the workers chanted the slogan “We want bread, but we want roses, too!”, a line borrowed from the James Oppenheim poem which became an emblematic catchphrase in the history of socialism.

Bread & Roses celebrates the centennial of this key moment with a selection of films questioning capitalism, and tackling workers rights, social activism and immigration. Family Unite, Unpaid Internships, the Arab Spring and Law & Disorder are some of the daily themes that have been chosen to structure the festival.

Channel 4 commissioned Battle of Trafalgar from Despite TV in 1990 during the poll tax riots; the film documents the mass protest held on Saturday 31 March in central London against Margaret Thatcher’s controversial measure. From the unfair aspect of the tax system to the partiality of mainstream media and the violent policing of the demonstration, the film’s topics specifically resonates in today’s socio-political context, and justify its screening to Bread & Roses’s committed programme.

Bread & Roses festival is organized by Natasha Caruana and Afshin Dehkordi, the two artists behind StudioSTRIKE: a creative space launched in 2010 on the top floor of the last union-owned pub in London, the Bread & Roses – the name inspired the idea for the festival.

The free festival, supported by the BFI and Film London, will run in various venues around Lambeth from April 27th to May 10th. Some of the films presented during these two weeks will include the classic The Grapes of Wrath, the Oscar-nominated documentary If a Tree Falls, and a recent project on the August riots titled My Child The Rioter. The festival will also encompass a live music event, Q&A sessions, and art installations.

To order a DVD of Battle of Trafalgar

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Dial M for Murdoch- Book Launch

Posted on April 24, 2012 by clockword

This week saw the release of Dial M for Murdoch: News Corporation and the Corporation of Britain, written jointly by Labour MP Tom Watson and The Independent’s Martin Hickman. The book was launched this morning at a press conference in which Watson called the Murdoch empire a “toxic institution that has operated in Britain like a shadow state”. Predicted to be the “one of the most attacked books this year”, the title and publication date were kept a complete secret until Monday. Published by Penguin, the book is on sale for £20. Reviews say that the book gives a detailed and researched account of the phone hacking scandal just in time for Murdoch’s appearance at the Leveson inquiry next week.

“News International Wapping dispute” exhibition opens in Liverpool

Posted on September 19, 2011 by clockword

The exhibition ‘News International Wapping – 25 Years on’ opens today in Liverpool marking 25 years since the sacking of 5,500 newspaper print workers during the bitter 1986 dispute between Rupert Murdoch and the print unions.

Occurring at a time when jobs, conditions and union organisation were being undermined in newspaper industry, it showcases the 13-month struggle the employees staged to try to save their jobs and protect their union rights.

Using the recent News of the World scandal as a poignant example of how corrupt newspapers can be and the damage they can cause, Paul Finegan, Unite’s regional secretary, stressed how important it was for Government to be aware “of the dramatic and negative impact on jobs that morally corrupt newspaper tycoons, working together with a government that are intent on reducing the rights of working people and their unions can have.”

When: From Monday, 19 to 30 September
Where: Unite, Jack Jones House, 2 Churchill Way, Liverpool L3 8EF

Despite the Sun -Screening-

Posted on July 21, 2011 by adosini

Despite the Sun

Screening and panel discussion

Wednesday 3rd Aug 6.00 – 9.00

Doors open 6.00
6.15 introduction
Screening starts 6.30
Panel Discussion 7.30 – 9.00

Mark Saunders of Spectacle and founder of Despite TV
David Crouch deputy Europe news editor at the Financial Times
Gary Horne NUJ Activist and LCC School of Journalism
Donnacha DeLong President at National Union of Journalists

Podium Lecture Theatre

London College of Communications

Elephant and Castle

London  SE1 6SB

Organised in collaboration with Fda Media Practice and MA journalism.

Sean Cubitt: Despite the Sun is ..“I think one of the most gripping pieces of political documentary to be made in this country in the last 50 years, it’s a phenomenal piece of work.”
“they all went scooting round through people’s houses and so on to get stories that the national media weren’t getting, and it’s a fabulous piece of work”
“So it was very important aesthetically as well as in terms of its politics.”

(blog entry, original article)

Like and share trailer on youtube | watch online | get DVD | about Despite TV

More like this: https://www.spectacle.co.uk/spectacleblog/active-archive/despite-the-sun-video-art-englands-avant-garde-interview/

Despite the Sun – How Rupert Murdoch destroyed Fleet St

Posted on July 8, 2011 by adosini

In January 1986, Rupert Murdoch moved his printing operation, News International, from Fleet St to Wapping in East London. Over 5,000 print workers, clerical staff, cleaners and secretaries were sacked in one day. He broke the traditionally strong printers union and banned the NUJ – the results of which we can see today.

Despite the Sun is an investigation into the year-long dispute, which shook the print industry. Produced from the point of view of the residents and print workers, the camera records the effects on residents harassed by the police and Murdoch’s lorries alike and cavalry-like charges of police horses on the picket lines. Vital questions are raised on the ownership and control of the media, access to it, the organisation of work and impact of the so-called ‘new technology’. Get the DVD.

One of the first camcorder activist tapes, Despite the Sun sold over 400 copies and was (thankfully) ‘bootlegged’ by the picketers and sold on the picket lines. An important historical account of a dispute that will resonate for many years to come and one that was almost totally ignored by the media.

During the three month production of this video Despite TV had equipment damaged, many light bulbs truncheoned and three members were assaulted by police.

Sean Cubitt: Despite the Sun is “I think, one of the most gripping pieces of political documentary to be made in this country in the last 50 years, it’s a phenomenal piece of work.”
“they all went scooting round through people’s houses and so on to get stories that the national media weren’t getting, and it’s a fabulous piece of work”
“So it was very important aesthetically as well as in terms of its politics.”

(blog entry, original article)

Like and share trailer on youtube | watch online | get DVD | about Despite TV

More like this: https://www.spectacle.co.uk/spectacleblog/active-archive/despite-the-sun-video-art-englands-avant-garde-interview/

An Urban media Practice: documentation, agitation, participation

Posted on February 7, 2011 by adosini

Mark Saunders lecturing on the Urban Practices course at UCL:

An Urban media Practice: documentation, agitation, participation

8th February 3pm in Room 114, 26 Bedford Way, Department of Geography, UCL

Drawing on 30 years experience of independent and community based media practice in London, Brussels and Rostock Mark Saunders will describe the political and technological development of Spectacle’s practice and use of media in urban struggles for social justice in the built environment.

This will include, Despite TV, an innovative video co-operative in East London (1981-94), Jako Co-operative and the making of The Truth Lies in Rostock (90-98) establishing resident video groups in gentrifying Brussels (2000-2009) and long term video workshops on “regenerated” estates Silwood in Rotherhithe (10 years) and Marsh Farm Luton (15 years) and recent work on the London Olympics and Battersea Power Station.

Key Readings:

Olympics

Olympic project pages

Olympic blog

Battersea Power Station

Battersea Power Station project

Battersea Power Station blog

Despite the Sun – Video Art, England’s Avant Garde, interview

Posted on October 26, 2009 by archive

Despite TV’s film “Despite the Sun” has been featured in an interview with writer and academic Sean Cubitt. The interview is about the early days of video in the UK.

Sean Cubitt is currently Professor of Media and Communications, University of Melbourne and has written widely on the media arts.

“that’s I think one of the most gripping pieces of political documentary to be made in this country in the last 50 years, it’s a phenomenal piece of work.”
“they all went scooting round through people’s houses and so on to get stories that the national media weren’t getting, and it’s a fabulous piece of work”
“So it was very important aesthetically as well as in terms of its politics.”

you can watch Despite the Sun here: Despite the Sun

full article can be found here: Video Art article

The Spectacle Blog

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Tag Archives: Despite TV

Plebs and Peasants

Screening of Battle of Trafalgar on May 7, 4:30pm – Free event

Dial M for Murdoch- Book Launch

“News International Wapping dispute” exhibition opens in Liverpool

Despite the Sun -Screening-

Despite the Sun

Screening and panel discussion

An Urban media Practice: documentation, agitation, participation