News Feed - Bristol Radical History Group

Bold Defiance

The Spitalfields Silk Weavers: London’s Luddites? Pretty much everyone has heard of the Luddites, although many people still have a misconception about the reasons why they destroyed machinery. The weavers of Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Lancashire and Leicestershire smashed machine looms not because they were blindly opposed to progress, or afraid of new technology, but because the introduction of machinery was undermining the livelihoods of themselves and their communities. They viewed new […]

Alan Woodward

By Randell Brantley

I am sorry to say that our friend and companero Alan Woodward passed away on Saturday 20th October, 6pm, at the North Middlesex Hospital. Alan Woodward was a lifelong working class revolutionary immersed in support for workplace struggles and other anti-capitalist movements. He started with the International Socialists (later the Socialist Workers Party). He was then very active in the Haringey Trades Union Council. In recent years he gravitated towards independent libertarian politics, […]

Revolution at Point Zero: Housework, Reproduction, and Feminist Struggle

Public Lecture by Silvia Federici and launch of her new book: Revolution at Point Zero: Housework, Reproduction, and Feminist Struggle (PM Press, 2012) Written between 1974 and the present, Revolution at Point Zero collects forty years of research and theorizing on the nature of housework, social reproduction, and women’s struggles on this terrain—to escape it, to better its conditions, to reconstruct it in ways that provide an alternative to capitalist relations. Indeed, as Federici reveals, […]

Pirates Cancelled

By Randell Brantley

Unfortunately due to circumstances far beyond the control of Bristol Radical History Group, the debate between University of West of England and BRHG members 'The Truth About Pirates' at MShed tomorrow night (Thursday 18th October) has been cancelled. We hope that the event will be rescheduled for the near future. Sorry if you wanted to go, we are as disappointed as you.

UWE History Department vs Long John Silver & Bristol Radical History Group: The truth about pirates.

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Following our Sunday extravaganza with Gideon Defoe and Aardman, Mark Steeds (Long John Silver Trust) and members of Bristol Radical History Group debate with the academics to thrash out the reality and defend the tales. Tickets and further details for these events are available at:

Gideon Defoe & Peter Lord Pirates! Adventures with scientists…and historians!

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At The MShed Pirates and adventurers take over the Harbourside to tell us who they were, what they did and why. The author and the film-maker arrive by ship to the MShed to show us how they turned a cracking, madcap novel into a blockbuster Aardman film, with BBC Bristol’s Steve Yabsley as your host. Have your books signed by Gideon Defoe who wrote the novel and Peter Lord who crafted it into the famous stop-start Aardman animation.

Northern Radical History Network

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The 3rd Northern Radical History Network meeting will take place on Saturday 6th October 2012 at Manchester Metropolitan University. The day will run from 11am to 4.30pm in the John Dalton Building (Rooms E244 & E246), Manchester Metropolitan University (All Saints Campus) on Oxford Road, Manchester. Speakers include: Bill Williams, respected historian of Manchester and author of ‘Jews and other foreigners’: Manchester and the Rescue of the Victims of European Fascism, 1933-1940 Steve […]

Otherstory Puppetry At Art On Hill

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Otherstory puppetry collective are exhibiting and performing this weekend 6th/7th October 12-6 at 101 Philip Street, Bedminster as part of the Art on Hill arts trail. Come and join us and see animations, puppets and sets, masks and other art work made by the members of the collective. There will be a performances each day at 5.00p.m. of 'Not only to rock the boat but indeed to sink it' - the rousing tale of Grania Uaile the Pirate Queen of County Mayo and her pirate crew who defied the marauders […]

The True History of the Kelley Gang

By Peter Carey

The best book to give a full historical account of Ned Kelley’s life is Ian Jones's excellent 1995 biography. Jones tells us that Kelly was a heroic man maddened by injustice and driven to become an outlaw as a result of his struggle against oppression. However if you want to find out what it may have really felt like to be Ned Kelley read The True History of the Kelley Gang. Carey succeeds in giving this extraordinary man a voice and makes him achingly real. His life story is narrated […]

Why The Hillsborough Panel Has Not Reported The Truth

By Daniel Bennett

On April 15, 1989 I was sitting in the North Stand at Hillsborough with a perfect view of the Leppings Lane end. Along with 40,000-odd other people I witnessed what has now been described as the biggest cover up in modern British history. How can you cover up something which is witnessed by over 40,000 people? As a 19-year-old, I returned to college after the spring break to read and watch reports of events which I knew to be false. It was not just The Sun. False reports were published by the […]