The League of Revolutionary Black Workers was formed in 1969 in Detroit, Michigan. The organisation united a number of different Revolutionary Union Movements (RUMs) that were growing rapidly across the auto industry and other industrial sectors. The formation of the League was an attempt to create a more cohesive political organ guided by the principles of Black liberation and Marxism-Leninism in order to gain political power and articulate the specific concerns of Black workers through […]
In the 1970s, Italy came to the brink of revolution, the most widespread assault on state power Western Europe had seen since the Spanish revolution. Every aspect of the state’s functioning was aggressively challenged. Millions of people were actively imposing their demands - workers, students, women. New ways of doing politics were developed including strikes, wildcats, student revolts, armed struggle and people having fun. These are all part of the story. The history of Italian radicalism in […]
What lessons can we learn from how the Left related to workers and industrial struggles of the 1970s and how should the Left relate to workers today? How should our methods of relating to workers differ between a workplace which is experiencing a high level of class conflict and shop floor organisation, from one which conflict occurs within the framework of union control, from one which is non-unionised and there is little overt conflict and a fairly passive, quiescent and fragmented workforce? […]
A showing of the influential Arena documentary (1995), which takes a different angle to the more widely known 'The Filth and the Fury'. From the suburban backgrounds of the first '100 punks' to a movement which spanned the globe, Punk and the Pistols examines the anger, ideas and inspiration which led to a movement that shook Britain and spanned the globe. Includes interviews with Jordan, John Lydon, Malcolm McLaren, Siouxsie Sioux and Vivienne Westwood. Introduced by director Paul Tickell. […]
The student rebellion in America in 1968 was fuelled by revulsion against the Vietnam War. It gave momentum to previously existing anti-nuclear and anti-racist movements on the campuses. The difference between the anti-war movement then and now is that the students were being drafted to serve as junior officers in Vietnam. Mike Levine provides an eyewitness account of the student revolt illustrated by contemporary newspaper pictures. Roger surveys the hidden history of resistance to the war […]
We're taking you back to the 70s with a night of music from across the decade. 1970 may have seen the passing of Jimmi Hendrix and the disbanding of the Beatles but this decade saw the birth of new genres which were integral to fashions, the party and the political scene at the time. Punk Rock's anti-establishment and DIY ethic moved away from previous trends of the 60s, to create, as Tommy Ramone described "some pure, stripped down, no bullshit rock 'n' roll" and played a big part in the Punk […]
The dominant idea of strikes in the 1970s is that of the 'winter of discontent' of 1979 in which workers took industrial action in support of pay claims that breached the social contract brokered between union leaders and the Labour Government. However, the highpoint of workers' militancy was in the early years of the decade when rank and file workers led successful strikes across industry. This meeting will examine the strikes of miners, builders and dockers as well as industrial action in […]
Sweet Liberation (community choir), Richard Burley & Danny Ward (acoustic set), Red Notes Choir (4 part harmony), Lynda Sanderson & Pauline Setterfield (opera singer and organist). A celebration of roles played by St. Wulfstan, Thomas Clarkson and the Seven Stars pub played in gaining freedom.
The rise of militancy in the workplace, universities and the new left in the early 1970s Britain generated a reaction by the ‘secret state’. A major campaign was launched by Special Branch and MI5 to infiltrate and destabilise these arenas, which culminated in a plot to overthrow Harold Wilson’s Labour government in the mid 1970s. Investigative researcher Larry O’Hara will give an overview of the period, looking at the tactics and strategies of the secret state. Watch this talk: If you see this […]
