A struggle for racial justice In 1963, activists from the West Indian Development Council (WIDC) had their suspicions confirmed that Bristol Omnibus Company operated a colour bar on the employment of drivers and conductors. But who was behind this? Management? Workers? Unions? Passengers? Silu Pascoe explores the background and the ensuing campaign to end the blatant discrimination on the buses. “I was there!” One of the young activists was Joyce Morris-Wisdom. In this pamphlet, she tells of her […]
Bristol has been host to refugees for centuries—but just how welcoming has the city been? The events of the first week of August 2024 follow a pattern that stretches back centuries—refugees and asylum seekers seeking refuge in Bristol and encountering hostility from some, but a welcome from others. Colin Thomas’s short history charts the reception given to those fleeing war and persecution from the seventeenth century to the twenty-first, outlines the stories of organisations that have developed […]
Not A BRHG Event
Dorset’s Fifth Radical Bookfair will take place on Saturday 5th October 2024 at Bad Hand Coffee Roasters: The Roastery, 7 Norwich Road, Bournemouth, Dorset, BH2 5QZ. Doors open 11:00, close at 17:00. Our e-mail for enquiries dorsetbookfair@riseup.net Our website (here) farcebook event BRHG members will be running a bookstall and are providing two talks: Talks and panels 11:30 – 12:30 Working with refugees in Portland. Hosted by Global Friendship Group. Activists of the Global Friendship Group […]
‘The enemies of the working-class will arrive in yachts and limousines, not in small boats’ [banner seen in Bristol on Wednesday 7 August 2024] ‘If ever I lie dying on a Nazi street, there’ll be ten dead fascists at my feet’ [anti-fascist trad.] Introduction After a week or so of protests and riots by right wing nationalists and racists in early August, largely orchestrated on social media by far-right propaganda, lies and distortions, we are now faced by a police and government narrative […]
Introduction The so-called ‘race riots’[1] which broke out between January and August 1919 in seven ports[2], were some of the most serious and sustained instances of public disorder in twentieth century Britain. During these riots, white working – class crowds targeted black seamen, their families and black-owned businesses and property in these ports. Other black people, including military personnel and skilled workers also came under attack from white crowds. The 1919 ‘race’ riots came to […]
The history of the Anti-Apartheid movement brings up images of boycotts and public campaigns in the UK. But another story went on behind the scenes, in secret, one that has been never told before. This is the story of the foreign recruits and their activities in South Africa, how they acted in defiance of the Apartheid government and its police on the instructions of the African National Congress (ANC). Ken Keable made two undercover trips to Johannesburg and Durban in 1968 and 1970 to […]
Book tickets for the showing here. BRHG are very pleased to welcome Arlen Harris (co-director) and Luke Daniels to Bristol to discuss this new documentary profiling the Guyanese revolutionary Walter Rodney. ‘Walter Rodney: What they don’t Want you to Know’ is an original 72-minute documentary featuring a murder, Cold War conspiracies, Black Power, the end of Empire, and how that connects to the policing, surveillance practices and social movements of today. This is the first film where Walter’s […]
Mike Baker, Plaque Maker – Living Easton Legend Erstwhile friend, collaborator and BRHG colleague Mark Steeds, presents a snapshot of the legacy of Easton legend Mike Baker, who sadly died in 2020 aged just 58. A doyen of the Living Easton History Group, among many others, his talent seemed to know no bounds. Rebel archeologist, Baker researched topics to the nth degree and then drew and sculpted them into veritable works of art. From his makeshift studio in the former Great Western Cotton Works […]
The brutality of the slave trade. In 1693, Captain Thomas Phillips embarked on a voyage from London to Guinea, where he purchased enslaved Africans on behalf of the Royal African Company. The subsequent journey across the Atlantic witnessed a tragic toll, with hundreds of the enslaved captives, and many of the crew, losing their lives before the ship reached the shores of Barbados. Fast forward to 2010, three centuries later, in 2010, Brecon Town Council made a startling and controversial […]
In 2022 Winston Trew of the Oval Four gave a talk at the Bristol Radical History Festival detailing his lifelong campaign for justice for the victims of racist and corrupt police officer Detective Sergeant Derek Ridgewell. Winston’s devastating story is detailed in his books Black for a Cause… and Rot at the Core: The Serious crimes of a Detective Sergeant . A young Black Power activist in 1973, Winston and three friends were accosted in the Oval tube station by plain clothes police, arrested, […]
