Name: May Day Partisans Party
Start: 2025-05-03T19:00:00+01:00
Location: Chapel - Whitehouse St.

A very Special event to launch the North East branch of the Associazione Nazionale Partigiani d'Italia UK (ANPI UK) - https://anpi.org.uk/en_GB/
The ANPI, National Association of Italian Partisans (https://www.anpi.it/), with its 153,000 members, is among the largest combatant associations present and active in Italy today.
It was established on 6th June 1944, in Rome, by the CLN of Central Italy, while the North was still under Nazi-Fascist occupation. On 5th April 1945, with the lieutenant decree n. 224, it was given the qualification of moral entity that endowed it with legal personality, promoting it in fact as an official association of partisans.
My proposal is for the NEVfL to affiliate to ANPI UK, this will mean that we will commemorate people who fought Fascism in Britain, Italy and Spain. I will open this up to discussion however, to see if this is acceptable or if there are alternatives.
We are honoured that historian Alfio Bernabei from the ANPI UK in London has agreed to attend our Partisans Party to speak about the ANPI - https://www.searchlightmagazine.com/2021/07/arandora-star-81-anniversario-di-una-tragedia-causata-dal-fascismo/
Local Historian Ian Stubbs will also give an address on the Arandora Star disaster: - On 2nd July 1940, the Blue Star luxury liner S.S. Arandora Star was torpedoed and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean, 75 miles off the north-west coast of Ireland. It was Bound for Canada, she was carrying over 1200 passengers, mainly Italian, German, and Austrian internees, plus a military guard of British soldiers and a crew of Merchant Navy seamen. Over half of those on board perished, including nearly 450 Italians, many of who had been arrested and interned in the summer of 1940. Of those, thirteen men were from Teesside.
On 2nd July 2009, a memorial plaque commemorating this tragic event was unveiled in Middlesbrough Town Hall. Three months later The IBMT held their AGM in Middlesbrough Town Hall on 9th October 2009., and the Arandora Star memorial is currently hung beside the Teesside International Brigade memorial.
The Bar of The Chapel will be open, a number of our friends and colleagues have agreed to perform for us on the evening: we are honoured that Dr Bob Beagrie has agreed to perform his Romanceros soundscape with Stewart and Mark. You will also be pleased to hear that Mark Boden has agreed to also perform solo. We are exited to announce that Sara Dennis (https://www.facebook.com/saradennismusic/) will start the the night, and that Harry Gallagher (https://harrygallagherpoet.wordpress.com/) has agreed to join us. We may also have one or two special guests.
There will be no charge for this event, we ask simply that you consider a small donation to the Ron Dennison memorial fund - https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/Ron-Dennison-Memorial and that you ensure the fine people behind the bar are given the opportunity to shown their skills.
Contact [email protected] for further details.