This post is the first relating to a new page on our website entitled ‘members reviews’.

Camden UNISON members are invited to submit reviews to the editors of this v/blog at unison@camden.gov.uk relating to any movie, documentary, tv show and musical release of relevance to history of the workers movement, connected union activities and politics.

The editors have the right to censor any submission likely to render this site liable for prosecution under current publishing or copyright legislation.

This site does not advocates, subscribes or promotes any content reviewed but simply describes items of interest to Camden UNISON members for further discussion or research.

Books:

Nicholas De Genova

The Borders of “Europe”:

Autonomy of Migration, Tactics of Bordering

(Duke University Press,  2017)

Nicholas De Genova is a Professor in the Department of Comparative Cultural Studies at the University of Houston.  His research centers primarily on migration, borders, citizenship, and race.

The Borders of Europe puts migration and borders at the center of debates on race and the colonial-like relations that scar the contemporary world. It casts a critically look on the political and cultural artificiality of national borders as well as on the challenge posed to them by the evasive autonomy of migration. The book does provides convenient answers to the challenging questions of the time; instead, it demonstrates how ‘fractured’‘Europe’ and ‘European- ness’ are.

The book constitutes an excellent introduction to De Genova other publications some of which are freely available on the net.

Movie

The trial of the Chicago 7

The movie is a classic of the ‘Vietnam years’ genre.

Since the beginning of the trial in 1969, the defendants and their attorneys have been depicted in a variety of art forms, including film, music, and theater.

The historical background must include both assassinations of Martin Luther King jnr and Robert Kennedy in early 1968.

The 1968 Democratic National Convention protests were a series of protests against the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War that took place prior to and during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.A variety of groups convened in Chicago to protest during the convention week, including the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (the Mobe) and the Yippies. The Black Panther Party.

In August 1968, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, David Dellinger, Lee Weiner, John Froines, and Bobby Seale make preparations to protest at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Five months later, they are arrested and charged with “crossing state lines” to incite a riot.

The film covers the notorious trial (all of the defendants were charged with and acquitted of conspiracy; Davis, Dellinger, Hayden, Hoffman, and Rubin were charged with and convicted of crossing state lines with intent to incite a riot; Froines and Weiner were charged with teaching demonstrators how to construct incendiary devices and acquitted of those charges. All of the convictions were later reversed on appeal, and the government declined to retry the case. While the jury deliberated, Judge Julius Hoffman convicted the defendants and their attorneys of  contempt of court and sentenced them to jail sentences ranging from less than three months to more than four years. The contempt convictions were also appealed, and some were retried before a different judge).

In addition, the movie provides an insight and a flavor of the reactionary political atmosphere of the time with interesting reverberations on current times.