In 1803 an Irish renegade, Ned Despard, stood on the gallows in London to be hanged for revolutionary conspiracy. His final speech, written with his Caribbean-born wife, Kate, expressed the hope that “the principles of freedom, of humanity, and of justice will triumph over falsehood, tyranny, and delusion.”
The radical love between Kate and Ned serves as a cornerstone for Red Round Globe Hot Burning, a monumental history of the origins of capitalism (and, simultaneously, the U.K. and U.S.) as well as resistance to it, told through the lives and deeds of people whose opposition to war, privatization, exploitation, and inequality resonates into the present.
The book, with its author, Peter Linebaugh, will be discussed at a free public event at Everyone's Books, 25 Elliot St., on Friday, July 19, at 6 p.m. The event is co-sponsored by the Kopkind Colony.
Kopkind's first seminar/retreat session this year is bringing activists and media makers involved in solidarity economy projects to exchange ideas and experiences around the theme “Democratizing the Economy.” Understanding history and its continued relevance is central to Kopkind's mission.