Culture in Society: Dumfries Working-Class History

• 19:00  21:00 Friday 18th November

Local author Ian Gasse will launch his new book, Mobbings, Struggles and Strikes, about the organised Dumfries working class – from their late C18 food riots (‘mobbings’) to a series of significant local strikes, involving bakers, stonemasons and women hosiery workers, in the late C19 and early C20, and also including Chartism and the local campaigns for the vote.

Culture in Society: Working-Class Theatre

• 14:00  16:30 Saturday 19th November

Ian Gasse, a former member of Red Ladder Theatre and Banner Theatre, and Dave Rogers, artistic director of Banner Theatre, will provide background on the British political theatre movement of the 1970s and 1980s, and introduce the work of these two companies to highlight the vital contribution they made to the trade union movement and for working-class audiences from the 1970s onwards.

Culture in Society: From Saltley Gate to Partygate

• 19:00  21:30 Saturday 19th November

Songs, stories and videos that connects a key trade union victory of the past to the major class conflicts of today.

Weaving together music, video and song, Banner Theatre will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the labour movement victory of Saltley Gate, when 20,000 Birmingham trade unionists walked out to support striking miners, in a massive show of solidarity. They blockaded and shut down the coke depot in Saltley and helped the miners win a 30% pay rise.