arts byMark Fisher Books


Unions of Our Own Daniel Gross Out now, Haymarket Books The co-founder of the Starbucks Workers Union – a part of Industrial Workers of the World – provides ‘eight building blocks to change work and the world’. Drawing on personal campaign stories, Gross explains how to design your own union and win.


Footprints Lionel Morrison and Liz Morrison June 9, Haymarket Books Subtitled A Black Journalist’s Fight Against Apartheid in South Africa and


In depth On the ball


NUJ life member John Keith was with Dixie Dean on the day the footballer died at Goodison Park in 1980. He was also in the company of Bill Shankly whom he had invited out for a publisher’s lunch. As a staff sports writer


on the Daily Express, he had befriended the footballing titans and would write books about them both. “The last thing Dixie


ever saw in his life was Everton scoring a goal against Liverpool,” says Keith. The two men continue


to haunt his imagination. Last year, he wrote his first novel, The Shankly Conspiracy, a fictional account of the Liverpool manager’s unexplained long weekend in 1967.


20 | theJournalist “Every summer, Bill


Shankly would say he was going to quit,” says Keith. “They used to call it Bill’s summer madness. But this particular time, one Saturday in March 1967, Everton knocked Liverpool out of the FA cup and Shankly wrote a letter of resignation.” The club knew better


Sandra George City Arts Centre, Edinburgh May 30–September 27 Social activism, disability rights and youth empowerment are shown from the perspective of the black female photographer and community worker who died in 2013. Photographers’ council member Matt Aslett is organising a panel discussion of working-class women photographers during the run.


in Exile, Footprints is the late Lionel Morrison’s recollections of being the youngest defendant in the 1956 Treason Trial, serving time in prison and fighting racism in Britain.


Exhibitions Beneath/Beofhód Photo Museum Ireland, Dublin May 28–July 5 Shane Hynan explores the social, cultural and historical place of peat bogs in the Irish Midlands. Using the word Beofhód, meaning ‘beneath the sod’, he reflects everything from the ancient Celtic past to the environmental concerns of today.


Through a Mirror, Darkly Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow June 5–October 11 Naeem Mohaiemen’s three-channel film goes back to May 1970, when American students protesting against domestic racism and overseas wars


were met by state violence. This is part of Glasgow International, the citywide festival of visual art (June 5–21).


Design and Disability V&A Dundee From June 5 This is a showcase of the contributions of disabled, deaf and neurodivergent people to design, art, architecture, fashion and photography since the 1940s. Rapturously received in London, the exhibition calls for more equitable approaches to design.


than to go public and, sure enough, Shankly reported for work the following Wednesday. His absence gave Keith


an excuse to move into fiction, combining the little-known anecdote with his interest in the Elgin marbles. What if a Greek campaign group had captured Shankly and used him as a bargaining tool? “The novel took longer


than my other books, but it gave me more satisfaction because your brain has to


get into the mode of fiction,” he says. Returning to reality in


January, Keith will air his new documentary, Dixie: the Goal King. It will mark 120 years since the birth of William Ralph Dean, who scored a record-breaking 60 goals for Everton in the 1927–28 season. With commentary from Gary Lineker, the film will premiere in New Brighton, near the Dean’s Birkenhead birthplace. Everton high scorer Graeme Sharp will join Keith for a Q&A. “When we were filming


at the Mersey ferry, every single person that passed had a story about Dixie Dean,” he says. “We took half a day to do half an hour’s shooting. He was everybody’s legend.”


The Shankly


Conspiracy, John Keith, Pegasus; Dixie: the Goal King, Floral Pavilion, New Brighton, 22 January


Festivals Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival July 17–19, Dorset Commemorating the farm workers in west Dorset who formed a trade union in 1834 only for their leaders to be sentenced to seven years’ transportation, the festival celebrates the achievements of the movement. NUJ member Mark Thomas is on the line-up of comedy, music and talks.


Green Gathering Piercefield Park, near Chepstow July 30–August 2 The off-grid festival explores low- impact living via music, arts, activism, spoken word and crafts. There is an all-day programme of talks by radical thinkers and a whole field dedicated to campaigns.


Film Ish


July 23 Imran Perretta’s film, co-written by Enda Walsh, is about two 12-year-old boys dealing with the fall-out from a police stop-and-search in Luton. Touching on racial profiling and facial recognition technology, the coming- of-age tale was well received at the Venice Film Festival.


Music Classical Pride Barbican and other venues, London


June 10–14 Conductor Oliver Zeffman’s


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