Power in the union

If you plonk "Union" and "Book" into Google you quickly get The London Cabinet Makers' Union Book of Prices available for £480 through Abe books. But there is a lot more to unions and books than that. Last year we were campaigning with UNISON against library cuts. This October we're somewhat more celebratory. On the 2nd October Five Leaves is one of the sponsors of the Cable Street march, together with the RMT and the South East Region of the TUC, both of which have slightly more members than the Amalgamated Union of Five Leaves Operatives (AUFLO). The next day it's over to Leicester where friends in Leicester Trades Council have a big do based on our book Dirty Thirty, celebrating the striking miners of Leicestershire. And the day after that I'll be speaking with David Kendall of the Reading Agency at the launch of Nottingham City UNISON's Six Book Challenge, organised by the union's learning team. We're going to make it a Seven Book Challenge by giving people copies of our Sunday Night and Monday Morning anthology of Nottingham writers.

Five Leaves new journal - Maps

We've been planning to issue a journal for some time, and here it is. Maps - a selection of essays on the loose theme of maps - by some regular and irregular Five Leaves writers, plus others from our periphery who usually write for other presses and publishers. This is our first annual journal - the theme of next year's is "Utopia". As well as the text only essays, Sara Jane Palmer has contributed an photographic essay of her ceramics based on rock formations in Morocco, all in colour. I'm grateful to all of the authors who contributed - some "from the vaults", others from work in progress, and some work commissioned for this collection. Richard Hollis has provided a typical Hollis cover.
The journal brings together many of our concerns under the one cover - social history, Romans, London fiction, Nottingham, poetry, travel writing. Maps is 150 pages, including some illustrations (some being maps...), some being colour. The book sells at £7.99 and can be ordered here: http://www.inpressbooks.co.uk/maps_ross_bradshaw_i022678.aspx

Nottingham Poetry Society at 70

Traditional poetry societies sometimes get a bad press, compared to the trendy (and often transient) stand and deliver/open mic elements of the poetry scene. But, as Clive Allen says in the foreword to Nottingham Poetry Society's Seventy anthology, "Along with the Arts Council, the universities, poetry magazine editors, small press publishers and organisers of literature festivals, they make up a sort of Poetry Welfare State." He goes on: "The modesty of poetry societies belies their enormous importance. They gather in out-of-the-way arts centres, WEA buildings, church halls.... [existing] on members' subs, minuscule (and rapidly disappearing) council grants. They depend on the generosity of people who willingly and consistently give of their time and energy... I owe much of my poetry life to poetry societies..." In the contributors' notes to this collection Adrian Buckner (a Five Leaves' poet) writes that he "owes his most enduring friendships in poetry to people he encountered at his first meetings" [20 years ago].

Nottingham Poetry Society has had its ups and downs, but its membership includes several fine poets. Adrian Buckner, one of ours, who is also editor of Assent magazine; Cathy Grindrod (one of ours sometimes), who has been the Derbyshire Poet Laureate; CJ Allen himself, who knows how to win poetry competitions as no other; Derrick Buttress, a poet who could have achieved more but loves the small press scene. I could mention others.

The NPS' secretary, in charge of production of Seventy, is Five Leaves' Pippa Hennessy (we obviously don't give her enough work to do here that she has free time interests) and there is a modest influx of new members. Happy birthday, Nottingham Poetry Society.

Cable Street good, Cable Street bad

People will have to forgive me for returning to Cable Street again and again this month. If you look at our events listing http://www.fiveleaves.co.uk/events.html you will see that Cable Street has become rather significant at Five Leaves Mansions at the moment. The purpose of this brief posting is to draw attention to the new Philosophy Football T-shirt, based on the old street sign. Copies cost £22.99, which seems expensive at first until you realise that a) they are of good quality b) they are made by people who are paid proper wages c) they are a fashion item (did I really mention fashion?). Find them at www.philosophyfootball.com/view_item.php?pid=739.
Mark Perryman, the leftie who runs Philosophy Football, will certainly not be attending one Cable Street event - the one organised by the Stalin Society. It would be nice to think nobody would attend, but there is such a group: "The aim of the Stalin Society is to defend Stalin and his work..." and it has a meeting on Cable Street. I'm not going to say where or when it is, but google will tell you if need be. The Society only costs a fiver to join, £2.50 for the unemployed. A great bargain if you are an unemployed Stalinist.
As far as I know Stalin was not at Cable Street, but 1936 was a busy year for him, what with the first Moscow Show Trial (which resulted in the execution of Zinoviev and Kamenev and others) and the start of the Great Purge. It is hard to see what such a Society could offer us.

Saved by the post

Yesterday was not the best of days. You don't need to know why, but it was saved by the post. You know, that old fashioned stuff that comes through a hole in your door. Top of the charts here was the Searchlight Education Trust special publication on the 75th anniversary of Cable Street. Never mind that it drew on and gave great coverage to our five new books on the subject, Steve Silver has put together a very attractive and readable pamphlet, which included his own family stories of the Battle. You can get hold of Steve's pamphlet on http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/shop/cablest for four pounds. On the same subject, the latest of the dozens of Cable Street events is a party by Jewdas in Brick Lane on 1st October. "Party like it's 1936" they say. Kids, eh? Also in the post was a tenth anniversary compilation from Jewish Renaissance, a magazine that regularly reviews our books, features the occasional article by me and whose poetry editor is Liz Cashdan (currently waiting patiently for Five Leaves to publish her "New and Selected" in 2013). Janet Levine, editor of JR, said that people doubted the journal would last two years (or even two issues) when it started. Congrats to her and her team for JR's success.

Back to Cable Street - we now have a bundle of brochures advertising Cable Street 75 March and Rally on 2nd October, which we are sponsoring. The speakers at the rally include Maurice Levitas, aged 96, a Cable Street veteran, who will also be at our collective book launch the same afternoon.

Sticking to the labour movement, I also received Voices of Wortley Hall: the story of Labour's Home, 1951-2011 by John Cornwell. Some years ago I was one vote in the crowd at Wortley, a stately home near Sheffield (pictured) owned by the labour movement, taking part in a bitter inter-union dispute about the level of modernisation necessary at Wortley. I can't remember now whether I voted for the FBU or the AUEW slate, but I was in favour of en-suite bedrooms for all. Nothing is too good for the working class. Wortley has continued to modernise - it is a major wedding venue - and keep its links with the trade union movement. The best stories are of course those of the early years when strong characters, and passing strangers, achieved the impossible. In passing, one of the descendants of the Earl of Wharncliffe (whose family originally owned the building) trying to join as a member. He was turned down as he did not have a trade union card. He promptly joined the Musicians Union so he could, presumably, buy the odd pint in the bar in his old family home. The book does not have an ISBN but can be ordered over the phone for £10 plus £2.50 postage from Wortley Hall on 0114 2882100.

Cable Street book offer

Just as Waterstone's announces its abolition of three for two, Five Leaves catches up with the abolition of the Net Book Agreement* to offer 20% off our Cable Street books. Mail order only, cheques only. This offer will also apply at our book launch where cash will never be refused.
* This 1997 decision was the most stupid decision ever for the UK book trade, leading to large scale closures of independent bookshops. It is still being played out by Waterstone's (which campaigned for its abolition) being undercut by supermarkets.

Dirtry Thirty Tribute Evening

Leicester Trades Council/Everybody's Reading/Leicester Social Forum/Five Leaves event - this will sell out. Get your ticket now.