From the earliest days of recorded history river pilots have navigated ships through the dangerous waters of the Bristol Channel and up the river Avon, with its twisting bends, shifting sand banks and strong currents. In the early nineteenth century, Bristol was granted rights to compulsory pilotage over the whole of the Channel. The Society of Merchant Venturers managed and regulated licenced pilots on behalf of Bristol Corporation. However, pilots were self-employed and operated in competition […]
Not A BRHG Event
What does resistance mean take in an age of austerity? As we see the austerity agenda having massive consequences in Greece and Spain and the UK bracing itself for the real impact of this agenda, we ask what should a resistance to austerity look like. In Greece we see outright violent resistance, combined with a development of bartering systems and many people returning back to the land to support themselves. Should we just resist or do we push for more radical change in society? If yes how can […]
Kings Cross Tube Fire 25 years on
Today (18th Nov 2012) is the 25th anniversary of the fire at Kings Cross tube station which killed 31 people and injured over 100 (see ) . The fire was 'blamed' at the time on a lit match which fell below the escalator and began the deadly inferno. The fire and subsequent inquiry led to the banning of smoking in stations, the phasing out of wooden escalators and forced London Underground to invest in heat and smoke detection systems, automatic sprinkler systems, CCTV and improved public address […]
Resistance to Debt is increasingly the way that class struggle is being expressed today. But debt resistance is not new. In Ancient Rome the battles between debtors and creditors were real ones, fought to the finish. This kind of struggle has returned in the late 20th century in many parts of the world though in a less bloody manner. Caffentzis will discuss one of the largest debt resistors' organization in history, the El Barzon (or The Yoke) movement in Mexico in the 1990s. A number of common […]
‘Glad Tidings of Struggle and Strife: A History of Protest Christmas Cards’ – 27 October, Newport
Glad Tidings of Struggle and Strife - A history of protest Christmas cards Saturday October 27th 2012 1pm - 3.30pm, Newport Museum & Art Gallery Opening event: Four veteran activists have been invited to speak at the opening: Hanif Bhanjee, former secretary Wales Anti Apartheid; Ray Davies, left wing activist; Ray Lawrence, former NUM and Jill Gough, Wales CND BOOK LAUNCH: An accompanying book Glad Tidings of Struggle and Strife by Llew and Pam Smith will be launched at the opening and will […]
Downlaod this article as a PDF file. 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 […]
Alan Woodward
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, […]
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
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.
Not A BRHG Event
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:
