livestream: Pluto Press authors Leah Cowan and Emily Kenway in conversation
Thursday 1st July
livestream - 7pm - free entry
Register your interest by getting your free ticket for this author talk, instructions to join will be emailed shortly afterwards. For your security and ours, you cannot attend this talk without registering in advance first.
Join us to hear Pluto Press authors Leah Cowan & Emily Kenway discussing their recent publications and common ground via ZOOM.
Pluto Press were founded in 1969, are one of Britain’s oldest radical publishers, and are contemporaries with us here at OB. We have many shared values and love stocking their titles. Pluto Press proudly identify as anti-capitalist, internationalist and politically independent.
Leah Cowan - former Politics Editor at award-winning magazine gal-dem. Works at Project 17, an advice centre which supports migrant families with No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF). Has spoken on race, gender and migration for UN Women, in the House of Commons, and at the Trade Unions Congress, and has written for VICE, openDemocracy and the Guardian. Leah will be discussing her book ‘Border Nation: A Story Of Migration’
Borders are more than geographical lines - they impact all our lives, whether it's the inhumanity of deportations, or a rise in racist attacks in the wake of the EU referendum. Border Nation shows how oppressive borders must be resisted. Laying bare the web of media myths that vilify migrants, Leah Cowan dives into the murky waters of corporate profiteering from borders by companies like G4S, and the ramping up of everyday borders through legislation. She looks at their colonial origins, and explores how a draconian approach to border crossings damages our communities.
Emily Kenway - writer and activist. Has spent 10yrs working on social justice in formal roles. A former policy adviser to the UK’s first Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner and is on the boards of the Public Interest Research Centre and the Common Wealth think tank. Has written for the Guardian, The Independent, Huffington Post and TLS. Emily will be discussing her book ‘The Truth About Modern Slavery’.
In 2019, over 10,000 possible victims of slavery were found in the UK. From men working in Sports Direct warehouses for barely any pay, to teenaged Vietnamese girls trafficked into small town nail bars, we’re told that modern slavery is all around us, operating in plain sight. But is this really slavery, and is it even a new phenomenon? Why has the British Conservative Party called it 'one of the great human rights issues of our time', when they usually ignore the exploitation of those at the bottom of the economic pile?
The Truth About Modern Slavery reveals how ‘modern slavery’ isn’t a new phenomenon at all, but a new story about exploitation created by, and for the benefit, of those in power. It shows how anti-slavery action acts as a moral cloak, hiding the harms of the ‘hostile environment’ towards migrants, legitimising big brands’ exploitation of the poorest workers and oppressing sex workers. Blaming the media's complicity, rich philanthropists' opportunism and our collective failure to realise the lies we’re being told, The Truth About Modern Slavery provides a vital challenge to conventional narratives on modern slavery.
Register via Eventbrite for instructions to join ZOOM event, and listen in on this amazing conversation. If you would like closed captions for this talk, please let us know.
This is a free entry event, but if you'd like to sling October Books a donation, please do.
If you’d like to order ‘Border Nation: A Story Of Migration’ by Leah Cowan, or ‘The Truth About Modern Slavery’ by Emily Kenway you can get them delivered directly to your door by clicking here!
If you’d like to delve further into the Pluto Press back catalogue and would like a recommendation email us at info@octoberbooks.org
