News Feed - Bristol Radical History Group

Should Britain Go to War With Germany?

By Roger Ball

Anti-war politician Kier Hardie addresses a protest in Trafalgar Square (Sunday August 2nd 1914)

Opposition to WW1 in Bristol in August 1914 War enthusiasm? There is a perception in Britain that popular patriotic pressure drove politicians to declare war on Germany on August 4th 1914 and that the population somehow desired war. This so-called ‘war enthusiasm’ has been characterised in the popular memory as: "cheering crowds outside Buckingham Palace, long lines outside recruiting offices and of soldiers marching away singing 'Tipperary'" . These images have been recently promoted by TV […]

Should Britain Go To War with Germany?

Mass meeting, debate and resolutions With Ernest Bevin (National Organiser Dockers Union) and Ben Tillett (General Secretary National Transport Workers Federation) On Narrow Quay by the Arnolfini, Bristol On Sunday 2nd August 1914, tens of thousands of people demonstrated across the country against Britain's entry into what became the first World War. In Bristol an anti-war demonstration on the Downs was followed by a mass meeting of Dockers on the Grove to discuss the worrying situation on the […]

Hidden Histories OF WWI

Shirkers, Skulkers, Deserters and the 'Live and Let Live' Principle: Everyday Resistance to Combat on the Western Front. St John’s Hall, Rax Lane, Bridport The ‘Christmas Truce’ of 1914 is sold to us as a brief 'miracle' involving a few hundred troops. Most history books ignore the massive scale of everyday 'hidden' resistance of Allied and German troops: how they avoided the front-line by many 'fraudulent' means and the indirect and direct cooperation between ‘enemies’ in the trenches. […]

Tolpuddle, Hutt and the Meerut ‘Conspiracy’

By Roger Ball

A few years ago Bristol Radical History Group published a pamphlet entitled Tolpuddle and Swing: The Flea and the Elephant which critiqued the centrality of the Tolpuddle Martyrs incident (1833-34) to Trade Union history whilst the massive uprising of rural wage-labourers which occurred a few years previously, known as the ‘Captain Swing riots’ (1830-31), had been pretty much ignored. The pamphlet essentially came about because of admirable efforts by Trade Unionists in Wiltshire and Hampshire […]

Black GI’s in Britain

1943 Bristol tensions in the racially segregated US army spill over into full blown fighting on the streets of Old Market between Black and White GIs. Using Bristol as a case study Professor Neil Wynn explores the impact of US racial politics on war time Britain. Part of a series of free talks at Trinity - Vice & Virtue: Discovering the History of Old Market 1900-2005 - invites you to a series of talks by local and national experts on the many aspects of Old Market's History. We will be […]

Bread Or Batons?

Bread or Batons? The Old Market 'Riots' of February 1932 Since the 'Wall Street Crash' of 1929 joblessness in Bristol had risen to unprecedented levels; by February 1932 the situation was critical with whole districts blighted by the effects of mass unemployment. Jobless Bristolians rallied round the National Unemployed Workers’ Movement (NUWM), the main organisation opposing mass unemployment and Government 'means test'. The NUWM responded to the proposed austerity measures by organising a […]

Vice & Virtue

By Randell Brantley

Vice & Virtue talks between July-Nov A series of free talks at Trinity. (Note, these events are not organised by BRHG) For more information about the talks or the project contact Edson on story@3ca.org.uk or Vice & Virtue is aproject funded by Heritage Lottery Fund, Quartet Community Foundation and the Old Market Community Association. Vice & Virtue: Discovering the History of Old Market 1900-2005 - invites you to a series of talks by local and national experts on the many aspects of […]

Ready for Revolution

The CNT Defense Committees in Barcelona 1933-38

By Agustín Guillamón

Translated by Paul Sharkey Morpheus: ‘I didn’t say it would be easy, Neo, I just said it would be the truth’ I remember seeing Frederica Montseny speak in Barcelona in 1986 for the 50th anniversary of the Spanish Revolution. I was on holiday with Ian Bone and our girlfriends and as we looked up at Montseny I remember Ian slagging her off and being a bit embarrassed that this ‘brave’ woman who must have been through so much was not getting the respect she deserved. Of course at the time I was a […]

Remembering the Real WWI: Public meeting

This is the monthly meeting in Bristol to discuss opposition to David Cameron's 'truly national commemoration' of WW1 stressing our 'national spirit'. Nationally there are plans to ensure that attention is given to the real causes and effects of the war, rather than an opportunity for our government to re-habilitate this war in particular or war in general. Bristol has long radical traditions and we know there are groups and individuals across the city who will want to ensure that there are […]

Babies in unmarked graves

By Di Parkin

Eastville Workhouse, BRHG research project There is rightly scandal in the press at the 800 babies buried in unmarked graves in Galway. But this was not a unique occurrence. Bristol Radical History Group BRHG has established that 3,300 adults, children and babies were buried in unmarked graves in an old cemetery (now a piece of open ground) behind the Eastville Workhouse on Fishponds Road in Bristol. The workhouse death records from 1855 to 1895 establish these burials took place. Some human […]