Events of the radical-history persuasion,
more or less, coming up in the next couple of months:-
UPDATE
Talk: Sisters with mourning hearts: a forgotten story of radical Manchester women in 1915
World War
One talk in Salford: Conscientious Objectors
On Monday
26 January at 2pm Salford Museum and Art Gallery hosts a free
talk by Steve Illingworth highlighting the story of WW1 conscientious objectors
with a focus on stories from the region.
Date and time:
Monday, 26 January 2015 - 2:00pm
Cost: Free!
No booking required
Suitable for: All
Talk by
Steve Illingworth highlighting the story of conscientious objectors with a
focus on stories from the region.
Please meet
in the museum reception.
No Glory Plans for 3 exhibitions in Manchester throughout 2015Talk: Sisters with mourning hearts: a forgotten story of radical Manchester women in 1915
Thursday 22 January 6-7pm
Performance Space
Central Library
No booking necessary - just come along!
One hundred years ago a group of Manchester women signed an open letter to the women of Germany and Austria sending their solemn greetings and declaring that they wished for peace. They received warm and heartfelt thanks from the German and Austrian women. The letter is an important part of the international women's movement for peace.
Join Dr Alison Ronan for an illustrated talk on the letter, its historical context and the stories of women who signed it. The event will feature a short film by Sue Reddish.
The letter is held by Manchester Central Library. A copy of the document and an interactive display telling the story of the women who signed it will be on display in Archives+.
No booking necessary - just come along!
One hundred years ago a group of Manchester women signed an open letter to the women of Germany and Austria sending their solemn greetings and declaring that they wished for peace. They received warm and heartfelt thanks from the German and Austrian women. The letter is an important part of the international women's movement for peace.
Join Dr Alison Ronan for an illustrated talk on the letter, its historical context and the stories of women who signed it. The event will feature a short film by Sue Reddish.
The letter is held by Manchester Central Library. A copy of the document and an interactive display telling the story of the women who signed it will be on display in Archives+.
Exhibition 1
During the first winter of the First World War, in December-January 1914/1915, 101 pacifist and suffragist British women including a group of women from Manchester and North-West England and with international and European connections, woven in the pre-war activities of the International Suffrage Alliance, wrote an Open Letter to the women of Germany and Austria declaring that:
During the first winter of the First World War, in December-January 1914/1915, 101 pacifist and suffragist British women including a group of women from Manchester and North-West England and with international and European connections, woven in the pre-war activities of the International Suffrage Alliance, wrote an Open Letter to the women of Germany and Austria declaring that:
‘The Christmas message sounds like
mockery to a world at war, but those of us who wished and still wish for peace
may surely offer a solemn greeting to such of you who feel as we do.’
And
the reply from the German and Austrian women was then published in the
international newspaper Jus Suffragi [Suffrage,
the right to vote] two months later:
‘To our English sisters, sisters of
the same race, we express in the name of many German women our warm and
heartfelt thanks for their Christmas greetings, which we only heard of lately.
‘This message was a confirmation of
what we foresaw—that women of the belligerent countries, with all faithfulness,
devotion, and love to their country, can go beyond it and maintain true
solidarity with the women of other belligerent nations, and that really
civilised women never lose their humanity’
The
original letter, signed by a number of women from Manchester and the NW and
women with strong links to the NW, is in the City Archives as part of the
Suffrage Collection donated by Margaret Ashton. It is an important document
which heralded the emergence of the international women’s peace movement and it
is here in Manchester!
More to come in April. Exhibition 2, The
Hague Congress: “Several leading members of Manchester Suffrage Society
established a break away branch of the newly- established British Committee of the International
Congress of Women in order to elect delegates for the proposed Congress planned
for The Hague in late April 1915.”
and Exhibition 3, October 2015
Plus ongoing plans for
- day out to Macclesfield where
there is a memorial to soldiers shot for desertion
- the arboretum in Staffordshire
- a creative day making banners
- a day for CO researchers to
compare notes
(Watch
this space…)
[Update] Also in Manchester -
[Update] Also in Manchester -
The Labour History Archive
and Study Centre at the People’s History Museum, Manchester, are hosting a talk
by David Goodway about George Julian Harney, historic Chartist leader.
"It would be great if you
could let any who may be interested know about the
talk. It would be great to see any and all there."
[7th
Feb., 2.30 – 4 p.m.]
IWCE Day School in Leeds
Saturday
31st January, 11.00 - 3.00
for
Independent Working Class Education
The day will discuss the IWCE Network
Manifesto and ask how we can work together to enrich working class education
and class struggle.
Have a look at http://iwceducation.co.uk/
for more information.
Offers of a short presentation are welcome.
To book and/or offer a presentation
email:
iwceducation@yahoo.co.uk
Swarthmore Centre,
2 - 7 Woodhouse Square,
Leeds LS3 AD
[Update] Provisional programme:
[Update] Provisional programme:
The main
focus of this IWCE Network meeting will be
"Developing and using
the IWCE Manifesto".
ALL COMMENTS TO COLIN WAUGH : cwaugh1@btinternet.com
before 24th January, please.
We are also delighted to have
contributions from Ian Richards (General Federation
of Trade Unions), Dave Berry
(Today's issues on employment practices), John Illy (Land Tax),
Phil Guy (Participate, enquire and
collaborate), and Frances Thorp (Looking at Art
and IWCE).
All presentations are short, and
there will be lots of discussion.
Network for
Peace
There will be a meeting on 19 February in London
We will have a short NfP business meeting followed by a discussion
on where we are with WW1 Campaigning.
We also hope to have a guest speaker, an academic who will report
on her research (just waiting for a confirmation).
No need to confirm your place, or send your apologies. But if you
cannot come and have something interesting to report please send something to
me in good time for me to distribute before the meeting if at all possible.
Here’s a link to the event on the NfP website:
On Saturday 28th February at 1pm, the Wakefield Socialist History Group will be holding an event HOUSING AND THE CLASS STRUGGLE at the Red Shed, Vicarage Street, Wakefield WF1.
Entrance is free and there will be a free light buffet.
We are looking for speakers for the event. If you would like to speak or can recommend a speaker please get in touch.
Entrance is free and there will be a free light buffet.
We are looking for speakers for the event. If you would like to speak or can recommend a speaker please get in touch.
At the start of the 20th century 90% of
Britain's population lived in private sector rented accommodation.
The sector was subject to minimal regulation and with the coming of the First
World War -and the attendant pressures on housing- landlords began to hike up
rents.
This was at a time when many working class men were at the front fighting. Women saw it as a betrayal and began to organise tenant groups to resist the rises.
In Glasgow in particular the women got the support of the Independent Labour Party and were championed by socialists such as John Maclean. They also won backing from workers in the factories and shipyards. Their agitation forced the government to take action. Rent controls were introduced. So too was security of tenure which made it more difficult for landlords to evict tenants.
Then in 1972 rent strikes broke out across Britain in response to the Heath Government's notorious Housing Finance Act. That legislation aimed to force council rents up to market levels. Whilst Labour Councils -even those that originally resisted- eventually caved in one by one Clay Cross stood firm to the end. Eleven councillors risked prison because of their refusal to implement the rises.
And in Liverpool in the mid 80s the then socialist council -in the face of massive opposition from Whitehall- embarked on a huge house building programme. It built 5000 new homes and froze council rents.
So housing has been and still remains a focus for class struggle.
[Update/Reminder] The next meeting of the Wakefield Socialist History Group is on
Saturday 28 February 2015, 1-4pm at the Red Shed, Vicarage Street, Wakefield.
The event will be focusing on HOUSING AND THE CLASS STRUGGLE.
The speakers confirmed so far are:
*Cllr Hilary Mitchell
*Karen Fletcher (Secretary, Barnsley Against the Bedroom Tax)
*Alan Stewart (Convenor, Wakefield Socialist History Group)
*Kevin Feintuck (rank and file housing worker in Sheffield)
The chair is Kitty Rees.
Admission is free and there will be a free light buffet.
Hope to see you there!
This was at a time when many working class men were at the front fighting. Women saw it as a betrayal and began to organise tenant groups to resist the rises.
In Glasgow in particular the women got the support of the Independent Labour Party and were championed by socialists such as John Maclean. They also won backing from workers in the factories and shipyards. Their agitation forced the government to take action. Rent controls were introduced. So too was security of tenure which made it more difficult for landlords to evict tenants.
Then in 1972 rent strikes broke out across Britain in response to the Heath Government's notorious Housing Finance Act. That legislation aimed to force council rents up to market levels. Whilst Labour Councils -even those that originally resisted- eventually caved in one by one Clay Cross stood firm to the end. Eleven councillors risked prison because of their refusal to implement the rises.
And in Liverpool in the mid 80s the then socialist council -in the face of massive opposition from Whitehall- embarked on a huge house building programme. It built 5000 new homes and froze council rents.
So housing has been and still remains a focus for class struggle.
[Update/Reminder] The next meeting of the Wakefield Socialist History Group is on
Saturday 28 February 2015, 1-4pm at the Red Shed, Vicarage Street, Wakefield.
The event will be focusing on HOUSING AND THE CLASS STRUGGLE.
The speakers confirmed so far are:
*Cllr Hilary Mitchell
*Karen Fletcher (Secretary, Barnsley Against the Bedroom Tax)
*Alan Stewart (Convenor, Wakefield Socialist History Group)
*Kevin Feintuck (rank and file housing worker in Sheffield)
The chair is Kitty Rees.
Admission is free and there will be a free light buffet.
Hope to see you there!
NEWS FROM NOWHERE CLUB
PROGRAMME 2015 now
available.
VENUE Epicentre, West St. Leytonstone London E11 4LJ
TIMES 7.30 Buffet: please bring something 8.00 Talk and
questions/discussion
TRAVEL Leytonstone or Stratford tube, 257 bus or
Leytonstone High Rd overground, short walk
All welcome, just turn
up. Free. Donations welcome. Car park. Quiet kids [sic] welcome.
Enquiries: 0208 555
5248 or 07443 480 509; info@newsfromnowhere club.org
Beginning on Saturday 10 January 2015 with “Bollington: Utopia in Cheshire?” and “Letchworth Garden
City: Health of the Country, Comforts of the Town” Speakers: Jim Hoyle &
William Armitage.
Then: Saturday
14 February 2015 The
Bethnal Green Tube Shelter Disaster Speaker: Joy Puritz- “This talk is a description of
the circumstances which led to the worst civilian disaster of WWII in this
country, whether it could have been avoided & if anyone was to blame.
Saturday
14 March 2015 The Life of Bees
Speaker: Ian Nichols
Saturday 11 April 2015 'The most lovable
figure’: George Lansbury and East End politics Speaker: Professor John
Shepherd
and
more in subsequent months.
LSHG Spring Term 2015 seminars
London Socialist Historians Seminars for early
2015 have also been announced and start with:
Monday
January 19th Marika
Sherwood, Black Soldiers in World War One
Monday
February 2nd Matthew
Burnett-Stewart, Arming both sides. The Armaments industry in World War
One.
These
take place in Room 102 at the Institute
of Historical Research, Senate House, Malet St, WC1 and start at 5.30 p.m.
For
more details and subsequent events see londonsocialisthistorians.blogspot.com
Next RaHN meeting:
Wednesday 25th February 7.30 p.m.
Wood Green Social Club 3 Stuart Crescent, N22 5NJ
(off the High Rd, near Wood Green tube)
Free to attend, all interested people welcome.
The last meeting agreed on
a theme of "Out and Proud in North London"
focusing on Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender struggles.
focusing on Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender struggles.
Details to follow.
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