Struggles for Black Community, made for Channel 4 at the beginning of the 1980s, chart some of the milestones in Black people’s fight for justice – Notting Hill in 1958, Powell and the numbers game, the strike at Imperial Typewriters, the death of anti-fascist Blair Peach. They reveal, in these histories ‘from below’, how unities across communities were forged so that Black became a political colour, not the colour of one’s skin, how racism has changed over time and how state institutions have […]
The arrival of the Empire Windrush, which docked in Tilbury in June 1948, bringing 492 migrants from Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and other islands was part of the large scale migration of British Commonwealth citizens from the Caribbean that lasted until the 1962 Commonwealth Immigration Act instituted racist controls on their entry to the UK. The Empire Windrush and the 'Windrush generation', as they have been labelled, particularly since the scandal exposed in 2018, are now becoming part of […]
Individual Labour MPs such as Sidney Silverman were significant to campaigning for abolition of the death penalty in Britain and the Labour Party was more hospitable to the idea of abolition than the Conservatives. Nevertheless, despite passing the reformist Criminal Justice Act in 1948 the Labour Government was opposed to abolishing the death penalty, which did not happen in Britain until 1965. This talk will explore why the death penalty was not abolished in 1948. It will also examine how […]
Since the fall of the slave-trader Edward Colston's statue in June 2020 the government, institutions, local politicians and his defenders, the Society of Merchant Venturers, have all been forced to react in one way or another. What unites them is that they have all attempted to cover up years of active defence or inaction concerning the celebration, commemoration or memorialisation of slave-traders in the city. From the mouths of people directly involved in the campaigning and activism […]
Catch Bristol's wonderful Red Notes Choir, who will support the Bristol Radical History Festival by performing at 12 noon. They'll be singing outside Mshed on the harbourside...unless it rains, when they'll be in the Ground Floor Foyer by the Mshed main entrance. The Red Notes Choir is a Bristol-based socialist choir. They have a repertoire of songs from around the world on historical, union, peace, green and human rights themes. "We use the streets of Bristol and further afield to spread our […]
We are pleased to host this exhibition at the BRHFestival 2022 on 14th May at Mshed. You can view the exhibition from 10am to 4pm, at the Level 2 foyer, inside Mshed. Talk - 2pm at the Level 2 Foyer, Sue Tate, a trustee from the Feminist Archive South, will give a talk about the exhibition, and answer any questions. About the exhibition: Politics and Protest is a dynamic, colourful and inspiring exhibition of 70+ posters selected from Feminist Archive South's collection of over 1000. It was […]
Not A BRHG Event
In the summer of 1797, Citizen John left the shadow of government spies in London to visit Samuel Coleridge in Nether Stowey and then stay in the Stroud area. We recreate Citizen John's adventures with a performative walk around Stroud. Meet at the Lockkeeper's Cafe at Walbridge, Stroud, GL5 3JS at 1.00pm (2 min walk from Stroud Train Station). A leisurely walk along the Stroudwater Canal and then a climb to Rodborough Common. We then descend to The Prince Albert for a pint or two. Probably […]
Our panel of speakers will address the scandal of the Spycops, the hitherto secret operations of undercover cops spying inside labour and social movements since 1968. Since the scandal became public knowledge in late 2010 with the exposure of Mark Kennedy, activists have traced and identified numerous #spycops along with their true and false identities. They have exposed some of their law-breaking activities; internal cover-ups; and coercion of numerous innocent, mainly women activists, into […]
1945: The war in Europe has just ended and the Labour Party wins a resounding general election victory. What follows is celebrated on much of the left as a period of progressive government which should inspire us to build a fairer society. However, at the time, critics pointed out that every socialist principle had been betrayed by politicians. In fact this was really a period much like any other, marked by continued militarism, colonialist suppression, racism, austerity and reactionary […]
Not In An Event Series
The fall of the Colston statue on 7th June 2020 can be seen as the culmination of 100yrs of campaigning against his city centre presence, which had intensified in the last decade, and intersected on that famous day. Whilst many individuals & institutions suddenly rushed to disown him, and the impact of the toppling rippled much further away than just in Bristol, that wasn’t the end of it! Tory ministers, right-wing media, Labour politicians, the CPS and the police launched a campaign of […]
