Just Books re-launch and re-opening

national | anti-capitalism | news report Friday April 02, 2010 15:02 by deezer - Just Books Collective, Organise! justbooks at rocketmail dot com 13-15 Clarence Street, Belfast, BT2 8DY

Just Books celebrate new shop in shared premises with the Warzone collective

So the re-launch and opening went very well last night. In all we estimate upwards of 75 people came along. There were 40+ at Dave Douglass's book launch while others came earlier to browse, look around the new Warzone and Just Books premises and lend their support. Thanks goes out to all the supporters of Just Books and collective members past and present with a special word of thanks to Dave Douglass for his informative and important talk. The collective has group to a membership of 15 in recent weeks and we look forward to keeping the shop open from 12.00pm to 5.30pm Monday to Saturday and hosting more events in future.

Dave Douglass speaking and Kev Jones, Organise!, Just Books Collective member and chair 1st April 2010

The event kicked off at 6pm with time to browse and check out the new building before Dave's book launch. When we opened the door at 6.00pm there was a queue outside. Comrades, old and new, caught up with each other, checked out the stock (well the stock that arrived on time for the launch) socialised, caught up and talked about what we could do in the future.

Refreshments were provided and it was great to speak to some old friends and unwind a bit after the hectic and sometimes stressful preparation for the evenings events.

Dave's talked started just after 7pm and he provided an excellent overview of his new book, [i]Ghost Dancers[/i], and dealt with the 84-85 miners' strike and demolished some of the myths (including left-wing myths) that have developed around the strike and centred on the very political nature of the dispute. A dispute that was nothing less than an attack on an organised and militant section of the working class in Britain as part of an attack on the working class as a whole by the Thatcher government. The discussion was worthwhile and covered the role of Scargill in the dispute, the state of the unions and labour movement, the impact of 'de-industrialisation', the detatchment between the left and the working-class, the role of women as the backbone of the strike and environmental concerns and 'clean coal'.

People stayed on and chatted afterwards before retired to a local pub for some more refreshments and chat. There was an extremely positive response to the event and people seemed to come away from the event inspired and ken to help make the shop and our future events an ongoing success.

People can help us build up the bookshop and cover our costs/bills by taking out a monthly standing order (suggested amount of £10 a month). Our account details are:

Bank: Ulster Bank
Branch: University Road Branch
Account name: Just Books Collective
Sort code: 98-01-55
Account number: 24049070