GFTU BGCM Report 2017

that took on the slow privatisation of Chicago’s schools, stopping them becoming little businesses. Townsend Productions performed extracts from Tolpuddle Theatre, and United We Stand – and their current touring production Dare Devil Rides to Jamara, by Neil Gore, his new play about Clem Beckett a motorbike speed rider who volunteered to fight fascists in the Spanish Civil War. Another character is the Marxist critic Christopher Caudwell. Caudwell on stage? Fascinating stuff. This is sophisticated drama, not agit’ prop. An invigorated audience generated some interesting ideas for; 1. alternative arts councils, funded by the Trade Unions 2. a centre/theatre as a home to working class theatre. 3. importance of the revival of satire 4. use of a common language around the arts, whatever the level. 5. professionalism and excellence 6. importance of a fair rate to artists, making communities stronger. This was a powerful and timely day that reminded us that art can serve politics by revealing and mirroring our society. It can put the oomph into a campaign,

inspire and motivate, help the ideas slip down nicely in education events, but it is its transformational nature that’s so important, and the role that art plays in a fulfilled life. Like food, it nourishes, and we can’t live without it. But this was a given; no need to rehearse and finesse psychological theories about art and the individual and society. This event was a step on the way to a three day Liberating Arts festival planned for November 3,4,5 2017. As the trade union movement gears up towards a high level of struggle during the next few years cultural work will be strengthened to appeal to the head and heart. For art changes people, and so does activism. Together they’re dynamite. Doug Nicholls concluded with an observation about our national poet Shakespeare; “It’s no accident that our great national poet and playwright was on our side, a socialist. Shakespeare in his history plays and great tragedies depicts the economic and moral collapse of the feudal system, in his Roman plays he shows how any socially divided society is undemocratic and ruled by despots and in his comedies, particularly plays like The Comedy of Errors, he shows how the market driven economy destroys social relationships and how human identity is distorted by profit and the cash nexus.”

Doug Nicholls

Photo courtesy of Kevin Hayes

Art and The Movement | Page 49