Building a Socialist Library (2) “Striking a Light: The Bryant and May Matchwomen and their place in Labour History” by Louise Raw

Striking a Light: The Bryant and May Matchwomen and their place in Labour History, Louise Raw Continuum Press ISBN 978-1-4411-1426-6 Buy it from

Louise Raw’s book is not only a fascinating history of the strike of 1400 women and girls at the Bryant and May factory in 1888, but also an expose of how little real research has been done into what was in fact a key episode in British trade union history. Louise argues that it has been underplayed both in terms of their actions and the significance of the strike.

I hope this book will go some way towards restoring to these women and their workmates their own voice and agency,serving both as a rewriting of the very beginnings of modern British labour history and as a tribute to the women..

Louise starts off with the best of credentials for writing this political history as she has worked In the East End with local people and has herself been on strike with them. Her research on the Matchwomen provides us with a new story about the women who have been ignored by more famous and lauded historians. Her book is the first proper history of this group of women workers taking industrial action.

She had to write a history in the absence of any autobiographies written by the individual women, and with all the participants long dead. Her account of how she did this is fascinating. She spent several years laboriously tracing the women through local papers and history talks and eventually succeeded in interviewing and speaking to the grandchildren of those whom she now believed were the true leaders of the strike.

The rich and valuable testimony of these three matchwomen’s grandchildren allows us to see the women growing up and becoming mothers,wives and grandmothers.Far from being downtrodden, all were figures of some standing in their communities, and well respected despite not conforming to popular notions of female “respectability”.

One of the key myths of the strike is that Annie Besant (a middle class journalist and Fabian) actually led the strike. Louise demonstrates that in reality Besant was fundamentally opposed to the kind of action that the women instigated, in fact she wanted a more middle class compromise ie a boycott of the Bryant and May products.

This is an important book on many levels but particularly in giving back to these women and their descendants the true history of their lives. Too often in histories the independent actions and motivations of working class people are ignored or underplayed. This book conveys to us an understanding of who these women were and why they decided to go on strike. It also puts into context the vibrant political community they came from, largely Irish, a community that has through the years played a significant role in British trade union history. As Louise says:

Certainly there is good evidence that the working-class Irish community in the Victorian East End was a politicized one. The London Irish brought with them traditions of passive mass defiance, street violence and armed rebellion.

In this book Louise shows that the Matchwomen’s strike was an important element in the lead up to the wave of strikes, including the Great Dock Strike of 1889, which led to the birth of the trade union movement in this country and the creation eventually of the Independent Labour Party.

In 2013 as we are going through a major attack on public services in this country it is important that we look back and learn from past experiences. The Matchwomen are part of the fabric of the trade union movement in this country and as such quite rightly deserve their place in our history.

And what is the message from this book for women in 2013? Louise comments:

125 years on, women are suffering disproportionately under the Government’s austerity programme. The poor are once again divided into ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ by both politicians and sections of the media. Migrant workers are demonised, and Michael Gove wants to drag school history back to the Victorian classroom.

If the truth about the matchwomen’s victory had always been acknowledged, and taught in schools rather than ‘buried’ by history, they could have offered powerful role models to generations of young children. The self-esteem of girls given positive historical and cultural role models has been shown to be measurably higher.
I believe we need to reclaim our history, and the fearless spirit of workers like these, as we face the challenges of today.

Louise has organised a festival to celebrate the Matchwomen see

Stop,Look,Listen…my weekly selection of favourite films, books and events to get you out of the house

Watch…..Tsar to Lenin (Cornerhouse 27 May) Released in 1937, this ranks among the twentieth century’s greatest film documentaries. It presents an extraordinary cinematic account of the Russian Revolution; from the mass uprising which overthrew the centuries-old Tsarist regime in February 191, to the Bolshevik-led insurrection eight months later which established the first socialist workers’ state and final victory in 1921 of the new Soviet regime over counter-revolutionary forces after a three-year-long civil war. It’s great that Cornerhouse are screening such an inconic film but only for one night…further details see

Celebrate…..the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of E.P. Thompson’s The Making of the English Working Class. Edward and his wife Dorothy, a respected historian in her own right, were good friends of Ruth and Eddie Frow. This exhibition at the Working Class Movement Library celebrates the book, and that friendship, and is a fascinating introduction to one of the most influential history books of the twentieth century. See

Support the Working Class Movement Library …..on Sunday 3 June at 3pm at Islington Mill a benefit in aid of the WCML will take place. Will Kaufman will be presenting . “All you Jim Crow fascists!” – Woody Guthrie’s freedom songs, the story of Guthrie’s transformation from a youthful Oklahoma racist to the ardent anti-racist champion who, along with many others, risked his life holding the line against American fascism during the Peekskill riots of 1949. Last time Will performed we had to turn away the punters so get there early if you want to see what will be more than just a singer and his songs. Tickets on the door at £10 venue; Islington Mill, James Street, Salford M3 5HW.

Enjoy….the art and music of the Netherlands on Thursday 23 May from 7-9pm at Manchester City Art Gallery as they launch a new exhibition; Home, Land and Sea Art in the Netherlands 1600-1800.
From 7pm see evocative paintings of everyday life, stormy seas, calm, peaceful landscapes and still lifes of luxury goods that have been redisplayed to reveal the Netherlands’ great artistic heritage. At 7.30pm enjoy an historic music performance by Accordes, who will play music by the 17th century Dutch composer and poet Constanijn Huygens (1596-1687) and his circle. The performance includes a lute, theorbo and Baroque guitar. Accordes is a sub group of the larger ensemble Partita. Further details see

Find out about….Ken Loach’s new party Left Unity as it holds its inaugural meeting for the folk of Tameside at 730-9pm in the Stalybridge Buffet Bar Thursday night, 23rd May. The meeting is a joint north and east Left Unity Manchester meeting. One of the speakers is from the Bedroom Tax campaign group in Gorton. Further details see

Check out mookychick.…..a feminist website that features fashion and feminist opinion, its funny…see

See…. a new play by award winning Shred Productions, SOUTH, set in Antarctica, 1962: “when ‘going south’ meant 12 months cut off from the world. Discovering upon arrival that the fiancée he left back home is pregnant, biologist Daniel puts ambition above his religious belief and stays. Seeking solace in his work, he uncovers disturbing evidence of the environmental disaster mankind may yet bring about. Teetering on the edge of depression, Daniel’s life is forever changed by his friendship with young dog-sledger, Jim. Then, when news of the Cuban Missile Crisis reaches the base, total destruction looms.”.
SOUTH plays at The Lowry, Salford Quays. Date/Time: May 29th, 30th & 31st – 8pm start • Tickets: £10 see

Go to a talk….about Votes for Women, 1868 – 1928 on Tuesday 21 May, 7:30pm at Chorlton Library. Socialist historian, Michael Herbert will tell the story of women’s long and difficult campaign for the right to vote in which Manchester played a key role with activists such as Lydia Becker, Esther Roper, Hannah Mitchell, Eva Gore-Booth, Teresa Billington, Mary Gawthorpe and the Pankhurst family. Free. Chorlton Library, Manchester Road Library 21 9PN. Further details see

Worth listening to….PJ Harvey singing the Ballad of the soldier’s wife – music by Kurt Weill and lyrics by Bertolt Brecht. Originally called the “Ballad of the Nazi Soldier’s Wife” and Intended for broadcast to Germany as part of the US war effort, the song chronicles the progress of the Nazi war machine through the gifts sent to the proud wife at home by her man at the front: furs from Oslo, a silk dress from Paris etc., until finally, from Russia, she receives her widow’s veil…………see

Stop,Look,Listen…my weekly selection of favourite films, books and events to get you out of the house

Watch…Manchester Film Co-operative – in association with the IF Campaign –have put together two films about the real economic crisis. It’s a double billing of We’re Not Broke and the award-winning Secret City.
6.30pm – 8.pm: We’re Not Broke, the story of how American corporations have been able to hide over a trillion dollars from Uncle Sam, and how seven fed-up Americans from across the country, take their frustration to the streets and vow to make the corporations pay their fair share. And at 8.30pm Secret City, not London but the finance sector in the City of London. This award-winning film exposes the Corporation‘s anti-democratic constitution, the ancient laws which allow it function as a state within a state, and what happens to those who oppose it. It’s followed at 10pm: Q&A session with Secret City director Lee Salter.
Date: Tuesday, 14th of May.

Time: Doors open at 6pm, the event will finish by around 11pm.

Admission: £5 waged, £4 unwaged for the double bill (or £3 waged, £2 unwaged for single film).

Look at….The exhibition Burning Bright: William Blake and Art of the Book which runs at The John Rylands Library from 8 February 8 – 23 June. Admission is free. Blake ( 1757 – 1827) was a poet, painter, and engraver. Ignored during his lifetime, and seen as mad by some people, he produced what are now seen as iconic images in his drawings and poetry. In this exhibition there are thirty of Blakes’ etchings and engravings as well as works by artists and designers who were influenced by him. What makes this exhibition unique is seeing so many of his engravings in one place and in the wonderful setting of the John Rylands Library. Further details see

Celebrate…The Smiths On Screen. Screen Stockport Film Festival is declaring Monday 13th May 2013 officially #SmithsDay in Stockport. It’s exactly thirty years to the day since The Smiths released their debut single Hand in Glove, which was recorded at Strawberry Studios in Stockport. There will be speakers discussing the cultural influence of the Smiths, as well as a showing of the film A Taste of Honey written by Morrisey’s favourite playwright Sheila Delaney. See

Get involved…..Derby Peoples History Group are organising a Peace and Justice Festival on 14 September. They have a planning meeting on Thursday 16 May and are looking for people to get involved. See

Join….. Greater Manchester Keep the NHS Public and be inspired by the dedication of people to challenge the privatisation of the NHS. …next organising meeting on Wed 15th May 7pm, Lounge Room, Methodist Central Hall, 1 Central Buildings Oldham Street Manchester M1 1 JQ. The room room is booked as Keep Our NHS Public. See

Listen to…. The making of a protest album (in 5 easy steps) by Quiet Loner who made a protest album called Greedy Magicians in 2012. He made it on one evening in a Salford Church and the artwork was created using 19 Century machines. On 18 May from 3-5pm he will be playing songs from the CD and explaining why he wanted to make a protest album. Free. Further info see

Save the Salford Cranes!

I heard a siren from the dock
Saw a train set the night on fire
Smelled the spring on the sulfured wind
Dirty old town, whoa-oh, dirty old town
Ewan McColl Dirty Old Town

In the 1970s I was taken by my school to visit the docks at Manchester. We went on a boat which weaved between the ships that were scattered throughout the docks, which in those days were seen as an important part of the economy of the city, one which children should know about and value.

Many Manchester families had links with the docks, in my case my uncle worked there, taking his docker’s hook home at night. Like many dockers he was Irish , for the dock community included people from many ethnic backgrounds, including African. Billy Johnson, for instance, father of boxer and Communist Len Johnson, had worked there in the early 1900s as a pilot escorting the boats into the docks, having come from Sierra Leone.

Manchester and Salford docks were opened in 1894 by Queen Victoria. They were part of the newly completed Manchester Ship Canal, which meant that large ships could now navigate through the waterways to Ordsall.

Looking around Salford Quays to-day it is hard imagine how the docks once gave employment to thousands of people across Salford, Manchester and Trafford, from the era when dock work was casual and men lined up to be picked for a day’s work, to the heyday of the 1970s when the Transport and General Workers Union had negotiated good employment terms and conditions for its workers.

The docks were the third busiest port in Britain with merchant ships of 12,500 tons in weight bringing in a variety of goods to feed the local and national community. Thousands of people worked in the ports, not just dockers and labourers but the crews from the various liners and merchant ships that were constantly visiting the port as well as customs officials, office staff, canteen workers and cleaners.

In 1982, due to the increasing use of containers and an increased trade with the European Common Market, the docks were closed down. In the 1990s the docks became the Salford Quays. This represented the massive change in our economy: from a manufacturing one to a service based one.

Cleansed of a thriving dock community, the area to-day has almost a Stepford Wives aura. There are many flats, from which hardly anyone seems moves in or out of, sitting amongst the prestigious Lowry Theatre and Imperial War Museum. The only signs left of the past are the art deco dock office and two large cranes. The cranes were erected on south dock 6 (now known as Merchants Quay and Clippers Quay) in 1966, but were decommissioned in 1988 when they were moved to their present home.

They have taken on a new life as Alice Darlington, has run a one woman campaign to save them from demolition. She says:
It was a great industry, and these cranes are a landmark of that era. Once these cranes have been demolished it will be hard for young people to remember what the docks were all about and how important Salford was as a trading post. The cranes are enormous and represent how important the docks were to the economic health of the nation.

Alice Darlington

Cranes were an essential part of the docks, used to load and unloaded goods. There were over 200 at the height of the working life of the docks. The remaining two cranes are iconic and are a landmark in the area, made by Stothert and Pittand specifically designed with one single column leg for Dock 6.

Docks 1905

Alice Darlington tried to get the cranes listed by English Heritage, due to their uniqueness, but they refused to do so, and this has been rubberstamped by the Secretary of State.
Darlington says she cannot understand a Labour Mayor Ian Stewart’s refusal to support the campaign to keep the cranes:
I don’t understand why a Labour representative is so against the working class heritage of Salford. If he keeps the cranes it could offer jobs to local people to maintain them.

As Salford Council make massive cuts to their frontline services they have responded to the campaign over the cranes by citing financial reasons. Labour Mayor Ian Stewart:
It would be wrong to spend £1million on preserving two rusting and dangerous cranes, when the people of Salford are struggling to make ends meet

Darlington and other local cranes campaigners, including the Salford Star, challenge the figures and believe that the money for refurbishment has been ringfenced and that they would only need to raise £22,500 from private sources to make up the shortfall from the Council.

The spotlight is now on Salford Council to see if they will demolish the cranes. Darlington is continuing with her e-petition and is gathering support from the local community as she takes her paper petitions around the local area.

We are getting lots of support from all parts of the community and the press. The cranes are part of a rich heritage for Salford people and it is important to remember that it was one of the greatest inland ports of the world.

Sign the petition at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/45202

Stop,Look,Listen…my weekly selection of favourite films, books and events to get you out of the house

Watch….a mini film festival at the Working Class Movement Library…including on Wednesday 15 May at 2pm they are showing a locally made film The Condition of the Working Classes, an up-to-date take on Engels’ classic of the same name. And on 17 May at 7pm a film by Luke Fowler The Poor Stockinger, the Luddite Cropper and the Deluded Followers of Joanna Southcott, a curious mixture of archive footage and newly shot material reflecting on the life of critic, historian and activist EP Thompson:.. It captures a moment of optimism, in which Thompson’s ideas for progressive education came together with political resistance and activism. For further info see

Go and see…two plays about the condition of women…the Royal Exchange are doing Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, his insightful and emotional story of a woman’s struggle to be liberated. Written in 1879, it still has an inner truth about the lives of women, maybe not so much in the west.
And at 3Minute Theatre you can see Female Transport, written 40 years ago, which again looks at the lives of women, those who were deported to Australia for petty crimes in 19th century Britain. Their lives on the ship mirrors societys’ treatment of women and the journey becomes one of political education and liberation. Further info see

Sign a petition….The Shrewsbury 24 Campaign aims to overturn the unjust prosecution of 24 building workers who were charged following the first ever national building workers strike in 1972. They picketed building sites in Shrewsbury during the dispute and were prosecuted in Shrewsbury Crown Court in 1973. They became known as the Shrewsbury 24. Six of the pickets were imprisoned. Their crime was to be part of a trade union campaign to get a decent rate of pay and safer working conditions for all building workers. For more information, see the campaign website
The campaign needs more signatures for their petition calling for full disclosure of all Government documents relating to the 1972 building workers strike and the conspiracy trials at Shrewsbury. Government files relating to the strike have been withheld from the National Archives even though more than 30 years have passed. please sign.

Look at..the photography of Eric Latham…he is from Beswick in East Manchester and in his book On Class Street he looks at the lives of people, mainly men, in an area that went from being a vibrant community to a wasteland when unemployment hit in the 80s. It is Eric’s story as well and it made me want to cry when he tells the story of how his father’s health was ruined by his working conditions in a local factory which led to his early death. The photographs compliment the stories and it was part of a wider project which toured local schools. Further details

Laugh with…. the latest chapter of the Artist Taxi Driver’s attack on the privatisation of the NHS….he pushes a plastic pig to parliament see

Go to…CAMP FRACK 2 SAYS NO TO FRACKING – YES TO ONE MILLION CLIMATE JOBS Mere Brow – 10th, 11th, 12th May. Organised by a broad coalition of local residents groups, environmental activists and trades unionists from across Britain. Camp Frack 2 aims: to be the largest unified symbol of resistance to the threat of extreme energy developments, such as hydraulic fracturing or ‘fracking’, that the UK has seen so far! See

Stop,Look,Listen…my weekly selection of favourite films, books and events to get you out of the house

Watch…and support Moston Small Cinema….Post Tenebras Lux Juan and his family live in the Mexican countryside and the film explores their lives, their marriage, poverty, gender and our relationship to the natural world. Maybe not the kind of film you would expect in Moston but that is the beauty of projects such as Moston Small Cinema, which is all about bringing cinema to the heart of a community, Find out more…..

Listen to ….author and political activists, Lyndsey German and Betty Tebbs at Waterstones Book Shop on Monday 29 April at 6pm. Lyndsey German’s new book How a Century of War Changed the Lives of Women, explores the history of women’s involvement in the Stop the War Movement over the last ten years and also reflects on why it has brought in so many women to the movement. Betty Tebbs, of Whitefield CND, will join her in the discussion about women’s role in the peace movement over the last 100 years. See

Look at…..the paintings of Brian Clarke at Gallery Oldham from April 20-Sept 14. He was born and trained as an artist in Oldham and is famous for his work in stained glass – see it in the Oldham Spindles shopping centre. His reputation is worldwide as he has been involved in projects from the Victorian Quarter in Leeds to Norte Shopping Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Brian is 60 this year and this is a homecoming for him, a reflection on his work and also in the film that accompanies the exhibition we find out more about his family and his love of art. Although famous for stained glass he draws everyday and in the works shown here we see some of his greatest influences, including his early life. I loved his drawings of Oldham mills As he says: My love of architecture began with my love of cotton mills’, he says. ‘I am built of red bricks and covered in black smog

Enjoy……the work of John Crumpton… BAFTA award winning sound editor, film and video maker, writer, trainer, BECTU learning organiser and photographer. In 2005 he, together with Feisal Querishi and Michael Herbert. produced a film about the work of the WCML which is now accessible on his website, alongside several of his other hits including my favourite… I married a Cult Figure from Salford…see

Remember….Alice Wheeldon…on May 1 Derby Peoples History Group will be remembering her life as a suffragist who opposed the First World War. They will be unveiling a plaque to commemorate her life and politics see

Celebrate International Workers Day…on Saturday May 4. Assemble: Bexley Square, Salford 10am and march from Bexley Square at 11am. Bringing together campaigns against the privatisation of the NHS, against the Bedroom Tax and defending jobs in public services…further details see

Listen to,,,, Beautiful Africa by Rokia Traore. I saw Rokia in a small club in Oldham several years ago. Her music is essentially African and in her latest album Beautiful Africa she comments on the war going on in her home country of Mali. Now based in Bristol her music has developed and with John Parish, who produces the work of PJ Harvey, it has a more rocky feel to it whilst mixing in her brilliant voice and interesting African sounds…see

Enjoy…..the angry taxi driver. Who says the working classes are not philosophers? ! See his latest rant when the BBC ask him to take part in a documentary….but there is no payment………classic.. see

“The Joy and fellowship of the open fells”: the Holiday Fellowship 1913-2013

28 April is the 81st anniversary of the day in 1932 when over 400 women and men from the Lancashire branch of the Communist inspired British Workers Sport Federation took part in a mass trespass on Kinder Scout to establish the principle of the people’s right to roam. The trespass was controversial at the time, being seen as a working class struggle for the right to access the countryside versus the rights of the wealthy to have exclusive use of moorlands for grouse shooting.

In 1891 in Colne a Congregationalist minister, T.A. Leonard, had different ideas about why working people should take to the hills and he set up an organisation which would offer walking holidays in the Lake District and beyond to the millworkers where he lived. He frowned upon the annual trip to resorts such as Blackpool and Morecambe:

This kind of holiday leads to thoughtless spending of money, inane types of amusement and unhealthy crowding in lodging houses.

Thomas Arthur Leonard

Leonard therefore set up a rambling club, and organised a holiday to Ambleside for the summer of 1891. Over the next few years the group travelled to Keswick and as far as Caernarvon in North Wales. The template for the holiday was a break for four nights, with 30 people in the group, enjoying basic accommodation. Leonard summed it up:

In those days we were content with very primitive arrangements, so long as they gave us the joy and freedom of the open fells. All we needed was food, beds and good fellowship.

In 1897 a small company was formed called the Co-operative Holiday Association (CHA). Leonard resigned as a minister and became its full-time General Secretary, based in one of their properties, Abbey House, in Whitby, Yorkshire.

In the early 1900s he numbers of centres owned by the CHA grew and by 1913 they had 18 centres, including five overseas.

But Leonard felt that origins of the CHA had been diluted and that it had become a middle-class, conservative organisation. So the Holiday Fellowship was launched to provide simple adventurous holidays with an emphasis on youth and expanding their trips to overseas, the aim being to provide an all inclusive holiday for the price of an average weekly wage.

Hf Badge

The headquarters was now in Conwy and several other centres were purchased in Yorkshire and near Stranraer, as well as transferring a centre in Germany from CHA to the HF.

Prices for the holidays varied from 25/- per week at the Newlands centre in Derwent Bank plus 4/6d for walking excursions to £5/10/6 per week in Germany. A trip to Germany in the summer of 1914 led to two of the tourists being interned for the period of the Great War!

Singing was an integral part of the HF holiday, and until 1933 there was always a song book included in the programme. The songs ranged from religious hymns to the popular tunes of the day.

Hf songbook

The HF continued to grow throughout the 1920s with nearly 30,000 guests in its 23 houses. By 1930 Its membership magazine Over the Hills had a circulation of 21,000 copies.

The Second World War led to the closure of many of the centres and saw guest numbers fall to 14,500 in 1943.
T.A. Leonard died In 1948, aged 84. An activist all his life he had not just been involved with the HF but had also been involved with the creation of the YHA, the National Trust and the Ramblers Association.

The HF (now called HF Holidays) has continued and this year celebrates its centenary. Its head offices are in Cumbria and Hertfordshire and it is the UK’s largest walking holiday company. It maintains its links with the Ramblers Association and is their recommended walking holiday partner. It works with other organisations such as the Outdoor Industries Association to help preserve wild land and wildlife.

Walking is still a popular activity and may become even more attractive to the public given the economic downturn. HF has seen the number of its walking groups double over the years. Holidays with HF can mean travelling to 113 destinations in 46 countries across the world. All its group leaders are volunteers and HF is still a co-operative so it returns its profits back into the organisation to improve the holiday experience of its guests.
For more information about HF see

Stop,Look,Listen…my weekly selection of favourite films, books and events to get you out of the house

Watch…Kino Film Shorts at our own 3Minute Theatre…just stepping through the door you become part of John and Gina’s world. It’s a special Kino Shorts on the first day of the Afflecks and Northern Quarter Festival on 1st April from 7pm £5/4. The evening consists of a Best of Selection from last years’ Kino and the opportunity for film makers to bring their own film. See Facebook page for further details http://www.facebook.com/events/463740020377674/

Help needed….Dingle Community Theatre in Liverpool are performing a tour of Brecht’s great anti-fascist play Fear and Misery Of The Third Reich by Bertolt Brecht, charting the rise of the Nazis. The group will be putting the play on between May 7th – 17th at the Lantern Theatre, Liverpool, The Salford Arts Theatre and Melrose Hall in Hoylake, with other venues being negotiated. They are looking for help in any of the following fields: stage management, props, costumes. If you can help in any of the above, please contact Dingle Community Theatre on 0771 684 8894 or email dinglecommunitytheatre@hotmail.co.uk

See… The Jesus Conspiracy by Burjesta Theatre…an intriguing play by Scottish writer Peter Burton: the greatest story never told a controversial take on Jesus the revolutionary, the man, the lover and the creation of the fantasy of ‘Christianity’ after his death by Paul. Spanning over a century of Jewish revolt against the Roman Empire, the stakes are high and brutality and massacre are common place. Live musical accompaniment by “Greek-Blues” guitarist Alex Solo.
Contact details: The Casa, Hope St. Liverpool L1 9BQ April Friday 12th, Saturday 13th, Monday 15th, Friday 19th, Saturday 20th Shows start 7.30pm Tickets £5, to reserve tickets phone 07913449396 or pay on the door.Please note the writer Peter Burton will be attending the shows on 19th and 20th of April and will lead a Q & A session regarding the history, politics and religion of the times after the show.

Sign the petition… The Save Shaker Aamer Campaign (SSAC) is campaigning for his return to his family and this country. He has been unlawfully imprisoned in Guantanamo for over eleven years without charge or trial, and has spent many of these years in solitary confinement. His campaign in this country is trying to raise 10,000 signatures by 20 April on Shaker Aamer’s epetition so as to have his continued detention debated on the floor of the House of Commons. With conditions in Guantanamo at an all time low please help all you can to raise the 40,000 signatures needed – if each one of us managed to ask one other person to sign, we could reach this figure. See

Give the Nobel Peace Prize to…someone who really deserves it. Bradley Manning has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, and he should receive it. Roots Action say: No individual has done more to push back against what Martin Luther King Jr. called “the madness of militarism” than Bradley Manning. And right now, remaining in prison and facing relentless prosecution by the U.S. government, no one is more in need of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Alfred Nobel’s will left funding for a prize to be awarded to “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”
The intent of the prize was to fund this work. As a result of enormous legal expenses, Bradley Manning is in need of that funding. What did he do?
Among the revelations made by Manning through WikiLeaks is the extent of time and energy the U.S. State Department puts into marketing U.S. weapons to the world’s governments. We all have a better understanding of the work that is needed for peace as a result of this exposure of “diplomacy” as consisting in the most part of weapons selling. Further details see

Accept…an invitation to contribute to Independent Working Class Education Rebuilding the Plebs Tradition and Independent Working Class education Saturday 20th April 2013
10.30am – 3.30pm Working Class Movement Library £5.00 includes lunch.
IWCE recently met in Yorkshire (November 2012), then launched the Website in London (2013); their next Workshop is in Salford. Would you like to contribute: make a brief presentation and then participate in vigorous non-sectarian discussion?
Please get in touch: iwceducation@yahoo.co.uk
What do you think of our Website? http://iwceducation.co.uk/
IWCE Network tries to
* develop a diverse range of education materials and approaches for trade union and other working class and progressive movement groups
* respect the role of the working class in making history, and in making the future .


And don’t forget……. Keep Our NHS Public protest…..on the Ist of April the NHS is going through a massive change and one that many of us are not happy with, so to mark our determination to challenge the new regime join us on 2nd April, 7.30am Cornbrook Metrolink, 7.45am Media:City Metrolink, 8am outside BBC building Media:City.. Join us at those times en route if you can’t make it to Cornbrook for 7.30am.
We’ll be leafleting commuters on the way.
A community choir will join us at Media City and everyone is urged to bring
NHS-related fancy dress for a bit of street theatre outside BBC building.
Let’s make this as lively and photogenic as possible!
We appreciate it’s early, but please do try to get along.
Organised by KONP Greater Manchester – supported by GMATUC/Greater Manchester Against Cuts.

Building a Socialist Library (1) Rebel Girls: Their Fight for the Vote by Jill Liddington

Dear readers
here is the first in a series of occasional posts about books that can inspire us, not just in terms of their content but also their capacity to encourage us to take part in campaigns and activities to make the world a better place.

Rebel Girls by Jill Liddington

I have been involved with the Working class Movement Library for many years and I believe that writing and researching working class history is a political act. If we know our history, then we can learn from it and use that knowledge to keep politically active and encourage other people to do likewise. Jill Liddington, for instance, begins this book by telling us that she stood in her local elections to stop BNP candidates being elected.

The campaign for the vote was one of the most exciting periods for women in this country but, as Jill recognises;

As a suffrage historian, I know that the campaign for the vote was much wider than Emily Wilding Davison’s martyr’s death….and so much broader than the leadership of Emmeline Pankhurst which inspired such suffragette daring and bravery.

Jill has been researching and writing suffrage history since the 1970s. Her books have educated us, so we now know that there was far more to the campaign for women’s equality than the Pankhurst story. Her book One Hand Tied Behind Us; The Rise of the Women’s Suffrage Movement (1978), which she wrote with the late Jill Norris, took us into the world of the working women of the north west. Their demands were not just for the vote, but also included greater political representation and improved working conditions through trade unionism .

In Rebel Girls Jill tells the story of the suffrage history of the Yorkshire region, an area that has previously not been researched or written about. It’s a region that provides a vibrant and exciting chapter in the history of the campaign for the vote:

They are decidly not the politically-experienced radical suffragists of Lancashire’s cotton towns, but daring rebel-girl suffragettes – usually between sixteen and twenty-five- who time and time again hurled themselves against the intransigent Liberal government.

And what did they women want? They wanted a new way of living, including equality in all aspects of their lives. They wanted an education, jobs with a living wage (something still being fought for in 2013) and a sexual freedom with greater personal choices.

In Rebel Girls Jill tells the stories of eight women who were born between 1881 and 1891. They lived through a highly charged era when taking on the authorities meant breaking all the rules and being punished for their political activity, including going to prison or being forced to go underground.

It is history at its most relevant, telling the story of otherwise unknown women and casting a light which;
Shifts little-known actors from the shadowy wings to well-lit centre stage: a new drama and chronology emerge, offering a fresh narrative history of women’s suffrage.

The front cover of Rebel Girls shows one of the most interesting characters in the book, sixteen year old Huddersfield weaver Dora Thewlis. Huddersfield was at the centre of the textile world. Families such as the Thewlis’s worked as weavers in the local mills and became active in the local labour movement.

In 1907, at the age of 16, Dora is earning almost a pound a week. Brought up in a highly politicised community her mother boasted of her daughter:
Ever since she was seven she has been a diligent reader of the newspapers, and can hold her own in debate on politics.

Dora and her family were inspired by the ethical socialism of the Independent Labour Party and the campaign for the vote. The Pankhurst campaign, the Women’s Social and Political Union, arrived in Huddersfield to set up a branch and fifty women signed up, including Dora and her mother.

Huddersfield WSPU

It is fascinating to read the accounts of the Huddersfield women when they went down to London on 13 February 1907, the day of the King’s Speech at the opening of Parliament. The women charged the doors of the House of Commons, fighting police on horses, for over several hours. Fifty six women were arrested:
Most of the prisoners were working class women from Lancashire, Glasgow and Yorkshire, reported the Daily Mirror, and the mingling of dialects made a strange element in the hubbub.

On 20 March it was Dora’s turn to take the train to London and become part of a contingent that once again marched on the House of Commons. The House was defended by 500 constables, but it did not stop the women. By 10pm seventy five women had been arrested, including Dora and seven women from Huddersfield. Their average age was twenty-seven and their occupations included weavers and tailoresses.

Dora’s arrest was captured by the Daily Mirror and again by Jill on the front cover of Rebel Girls. She was sixteen years old and was dubbed the Baby Suffragette by the papers. Dora was remanded to Holloway Prison and eventually released back to Huddersfield. She came back as a heroine and to parents who were extremely proud of her.

One of the reasons I really enjoy reading this book is because Jill reminds us that this history is an important part of the story of our fight for democracy in this country. And at a time when it is hard for people to feel inspired by politics, its good to remind ourselves that these women often worked ten hours a day in factories and then went out leafleting and to face violence at public meetings. They are an inspiration and in books such as Rebel Girls we are reminded how important it is to carry on the tradition of challenging authority, particularly as at the moment it is trying to take away everything that we see as essential in a democratic society.

Stop,Look,Listen…my weekly selection of favourite films, books and events to get you out of the house

Watch..the Spirit of 45. Ken Loach’s homage to post war Britain:We have been the dreamers, we have been the sufferers, now we are the builders. (Nye Bevan) Nowadays its more a case of trying to hold onto what hasn’t been trashed by the ConDems or thrown away by Labour Councils. The film does feature some of our local heroes, including Karen Reissman of the Save the Bolton A&E campaign. Watch it at Moston Small Cinema 22-28 March from 7. 30-915pm only £3!!

Look…..at the beautiful Salford Cranes before Salford Council seeks to dismantle two of the most iconic landmarks that pay homage to the Manchester and Salford Docks and the community that was part of it. Support Alice Darlington who has campaigned tirelessly to save the cranes, sign her e-petition at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/45202 see article at Salford Star

Show… your support for the Morning Star, the only left wing daily in Britain, at the Ordinary Rebels Morning Star Social on March 28^th  from 7pm at 3 Minute Theatre.  Join comedian Dave Puller and singer Claire Mooney for an evening of folk music, stand up, poetry and satirical sketches. Only £3!  See for further information http://www.facebook.com/events/137061903130558/

Go to…Palestinian Fundraiser for the Palestinian Women’s Scholarship Fund…at Denshaw Village Hall,Saddlworth on Sunday 28 April 2-5pm. The documentary And Still they Dance made by Sheffield PSC will be shown. Tickets are £8/4 and can be booked by ringing 07975 908409 or emailing saddleworth.pwsf@gmail.com

Remember…Ethel Carnie who was a working class writer and anti-racist activist. This year marks the 100 centenary of the publication of her first book Miss Nobody. On 7 September the WCML will be hosting a one day conference to commemorate this event. Nicola Wilson,  who is organising the event,  is looking for papers or presentations on any aspect of Ethel’s life. Contact her on n.l.wilson@reading.ac.uk by Friday 28 June if you wish to contribute.

You can read my article on Ethel here.

Oppose blacklisting Steve Acheson Benefit Friday 22nd March 7pm
Saffron Restaurant £20/£12Steve Acheson, a trade union activist  has been blacklisted, cannot get work and doesn’t get benefits so a fundraising night has been organised by friends, including Salford Pensioners Association, to get him some financial help. See the blacklist blog

Find out more about… Charles Parker, the radio producer  on Friday 22 March from 10am to 4.30pm at an event hosted by the University of Salford, in the Digital Performance Lab at MediaCityUK in Salford Quays. The event seeks to recognise the work of the late BBC producer and celebrates the radio feature-past, present and future. 2013 sees the 50th anniversary of two of Parker’s famous Radio Ballads made with Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger – ‘On the Edge’ about teenagers and ‘The Fight Game’ about boxing – so two of the main themes of this year’s conference are ‘the radio feature and young people’ and ‘sport on radio’.

The conference fee of £35 (£15 students) includes lunch and morning & afternoon refreshments.

More information here.

still time to see….Shirley Baker; Looking Outwards at the Gallery Oldham. Find out more about one of Britain’s best and most interesting photographers. Through her portraits explore her life from  Manchester in the 1960s to contemporary photos of Japan and France. See

listen to… Nick Cave’s latest album,,Push the Sky Away..that distinctive voice, quirky songs and great music!