England Arise: National Tour

IN 1914, the young men and women of Huddersfield Socialist Sunday School believe passionately in a better world.  Inspired by the revolutionary art, music and literature of the times, Arthur Gardiner and Percy Ellis refuse to take arms against their fellow workers and fight in the First World War.


Buoyed on by the support of their community, both at home and abroad, they take on the military in a momentous battle.  They suffer prison and brutality, and are taken to breaking point in a war of wills.
It costs them everything – except their conscience.


National Tour
24 & 25 October
LAWRENCE BATLEY THEATRE
Huddersfield
01484 430 528
30 & 31 October
KARDOMAH 94
Hull
01482 363 004
1 November
CARRIAGEWORKS THEATRE
Leeds
0113 224 3801
4 November
CAST
Doncaster
01302 303 959
7 November
SUNDERLAND STAGES
Royalty Theatre, Sunderland
0844 870 0887
9 November
SQUARE CHAPEL
Halifax
01422 349 422
10 & 11 November
MECHANICS THEATRE
Wakefield
01924 789 815
14 & 15 November
PEOPLE’S HISTORY MUSEUM
Manchester
07508 421 749
18 & 19 November
PIONEERS MUSEUM
Rochdale
01706 524 920
Inspired by the book ‘Comrades In Conscience’, by Cyril Pearce, drawing on Jill Liddington’s story of the Northern women’s suffrage movement, ‘Rebel Girls’, and using first hand source material,
England, Arise! brings to life a world of young people full of ideas, good humour and optimism for a brighter tomorrow.
For them power comes from knowledge, not a gun.
This is a story of hope.
Written by Mick Martin
Directed by Jude Wright
Designed by Barney George
Music by Jamie Lockhart & Lee Smith
www.bentarchitect.co.uk

CELEBRATING ALICE WHEELDON

*7.30pm, Thursday 2 October 2014*

*Torriano Meeting House,
99 Torriano Avenue,
London
NW5 2RX
(tube: Kentish Town)

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/735166689889273/

An evening celebrating the anti-war activists of 1914-1918 with pictures,
poetry, song and talks.

Featuring *Chloe Mason* - the great granddaughter of socialist, pacifist,
suffragist and second-hand clothes dealer Alice Wheeldon, an opponent of
World War 1, imprisoned in 1917 for the alleged attempted murder of Lloyd
George, who will be joining
us to talk about the campaign to clear Alice's name, as well as that of
Alice's daughter Winnie and son-in-law Alfred Mason (who were convicted
alongside her).

http://theworldismycountry.info/2-oct-celebrating-alice-wheeldon/

Free event. All welcome.
www.theworldismycountry.info

A Peace News project: www.peacenews.info

_______________________________________________
Northernradicalhistory mailing list
Northernradicalhistory@lists.aktivix.org
https://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/northernradicalhistory

'English Working Class': Made Up North!

The 4th Northern Radical History Network Conference in Bradford

LAST Saturday Dave Goodway, the social and cultural historian who worked in Continuing Education at the University of Leeds from 1969 to 2005, gave an illuminating rendering of the intellectual influences upon E.P. Thompson through William Morris and, perhaps more importantly, the necessary territorial environment in which Thompson found himself when he researched his significant book 'The Making of the Working Class' in 1963, in what is now West Yorkshire. This last point became clear when Mr. Goodway came to answer the question from Adam Gutteridge from Sheffield:
'How did the book come to be produced out of a specific geographical location?'

Mr.Goodway responded thus:
'He didn't teach local history, his background was in English literature, but E.P. Thompson's “The Making of the Working Class” is a national history with in-depth local research in the West Riding of Yorkshire that goes beyond the London-centric history, and he made an active choice to live in an industrial area.'
or as E.P. Thompson has it in his Preface dated Halifax August 1963:
'This book was written in Yorkshire, and is coloured at times by West Riding sources.' 

Thompson had gone to Cambridge in 1941 to study English literature and social history in Elizabethan England, going to Leeds University as a staff teacher still in English literature in 1948, and had in the 1950s still regarded himself as a poet and had been elected to the District Committee of the Communist Party around this time. He later came to write a 908-page book on William Morris 'Prophet of a New Order', and claimed 'Morris came to seize me by the throat', and Goodway said this book led him to 'reclaim Morris for a socialism that is revolutionary'. It was Thompson's work on this book that was, according to Mr. Goodway, crucial in beginning a transformation in Thompson's thinking that was accelerated in 1956 when he left the Communist Party, during what became 'the most important year for Thompson': following the Hungarian Revolution E.P. Thompson had written about the folly of 'leaving error unrefuted'. 

Goodway pointed to the distinction that Thompson found in his study of William Morris between 'Desire and necessity' or between morality, human will and conscience on the one hand, and Marxist determinism on the other. Derek Pattison told me that the historian Eric Hobsbawn regarded E.P. Thompson's 'The Making of the English Working Class' as too 'romantic'; Hobsbawn stayed in the Communist Party up to his death, long after Thompson left in 1956, and Hobsbawm deftly continued to juggle his grand historical ideas about society and with a straight poker-face, and an apparently clear conscience as the mountains of corpses piled up across the planet.

E.P. Thompson is not, like Hobsbawm seems to be, studying a topic to pour scorn on some social element like 'Primitive Rebels' or 'Bandits' in order to show that they are immature or backwards stages in a linear progression to the present. Thompson writes in his Preface:
'I am seeking to rescue the poor stockinger, the Luddite cropper, the "obsolete" hand-loom weaver, the 'utopian' artisan, and even the deluded follower of Joanna Southcott, from the enormous condescension of posterity. Their crafts and traditions may have been dying. Their hostility to the new industrialism may have been backward-looking. Their communitarian ideals may have been foolhardy. But they lived through these times of acute social disturbance, and we did not.'

One senses a smug, supercilious condescending attitude in Hobsbawm, that is lacking in the Englishman, E.P. Thompson. George Orwell's portrayal of 'Catastrophic Gradualism' would not trouble the hardened Marxist Professor Hobsbawm, as I suspect it would E.P. Thompson. The publishers Gollanz asked the historian John Saville for a text book on the English working-class and he referred them to Thompson, then what started as a social and political history of the West Riding ended up by being what Dave Goodway describes as 'the most important history book in England'. For Goodway the word 'Making' in the title of 'The Making of the Working Class' is vital because it emphasises that 'man must and does create the conditions under which he lives'. 'Making' in this sense means 'agency and engagement' in people creating for themselves their own destiny. Goodway said that the key organising theme of this work was visible in Thompson as early as 1955 during his work on Morris, and the facilities for the study of the subject were present in the fact that Thompson was involved in giving adult education classes in the West Riding of Yorkshire; several of his students helping in the project from classes scattered across West Yorkshire from Todmorden to Northallerton.

Fiona Cosson from Littleborough in Lancashire, asked if Thompson was a 'public intellectual' and if this is something of a legacy that has now been abandoned by the Left? It was thought that historians today had bought into the 'consensus' and moved from the study of 'class' to research into consumption with research grants now awarded for contemporary concerns like consumption habits and perhaps issues of identity politics. Goodway said that there are pressures on academics to produce their results before they are really ready, and that he felt that there is little chance now that researchers and academics can create works like 'The Makings of the the Working Class' or 'William Morris'.

There was some discussion as to if Thompson was right in his central thesis that the working-class became a reality at the time of the Reform Act Bill in the 1832 the focus of his Chapter 16 on 'Class Consciousness', or as Hobsbawn has claimed, later in the 19th Century with the emergence of the popular press and cheap railway travel.  Hobsbawm had taught Goodway, and he said that Hobsbawn didn't address the issue that this late 19th Century rendering of the formation of the English working-class was an altogether more passive animal.  Something that was not tackled last Saturday was Thompson's stress in his Chapter 2 of the book on the London bias of many theorists of the English working-class.  At the end of that chapter, after giving a quote from Dr. Hobsbawm, he writes:
'Nearly all the theorists of the working-class movement are in that London tradition - or else, like Bray the Leeds printer they are analogues of the skilled London working men.'
He then argues:
'But the list itself reveals a dimension that is missing - the moral force of the Luddites, of Brandreth and young Bamford, of the Ten Hour men, of Northern Chartists and I.L.P. (and) South and North, intellect and enthusiasm, the arguments of secularism and rhetoric of love - the tension is perpetuated in the nineteenth century...  And each tradition seems enfeebled without the complement of the other.'
_________________________________________________________

The next issueof the printed issue of NORTHERN VOICES No.14, will soon be available for sale with a with a review of one of Dave Goodway's books 'The Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow:  from William Morris to Colin Ward', Northern Voices can be obtained as follows:
Postal subscription: £5 for the next two issues (post included). Cheques payable to 'Northern Voices' sent to c/o 52, Todmorden Road, Burnley, Lancashire BB10 4AH.
Tel.: 0161 793 5122.
email: northernvoices@hotmail.com

E.P. Thompson & 'The Making of "The Making of the English Working Class".'

The 4th Northern Radical History Network meeting to be held on Saturday 20 April 2013, in Bradford at the The Equity Centre, 1 Longlands Street, Bradford

THIS year marks 50 years since the publication of E. P. Thompson’s 'The Making of the English Working Class', and the book, its author and the book’s impact and legacy will be the focus of our meeting.

We are delighted to be joined by David Goodway, a social and cultural historian who has become increasingly known as an authority on anarchism. Between 1969 and 2005, David worked in Continuing Education at the University of Leeds, and he was Helen Cam Visiting Fellow in History at Girton College, Cambridge, for 2006- 07.

His publications include London Chartism, 1838-1848 (1982), Talking Anarchy (with Colin Ward) (2003) and 'Anarchist Seeds beneath the Snow: Left-Libertarian Thought and British Writers from William Morris to Colin Ward' (2006). David will present a paper entitled 'The Making of "The Making of the English Working Class".'

The meeting will take place at The Equity Centre, 1 Longlands Street, Bradford, on Saturday 20th April 2013 from 11am – 3pm. ALL WELCOME. Hope to see you there!

For further details, please see http://northernradicalhistory.wordpress.com/

The Northern Radical History Network (NRHN) is a network of individuals across the north of England who are enthusiastic about the value of history as a radical activity in its own right. We welcome anyone who shares this basic belief. For more information about NRHN and to get involved, please see http://northernradicalhistory.wordpress.com/ , or email nrhnet2012 [AT] gmail.com

Manchester's Liberal Myth & Liverpool's Hidden History

3rd Northern Radical History Meeting

York, Nottingham, Bradford, Liverpool and Greater Manchester were represented at the 3rd meeting of NRHN:  participant interests and research included syndicalism; Chaplin and clog dancing in Liverpool; the Luddites and next year's anniversary of their executions in York; the election riots of the 1830s; the endgame of the Indian Empire; Jews and other foreigners in Manchester and the Wigan Diggers.

Bill Williams in his talk, asked the question as to what extent is Manchester justified in calling itself a 'liberal city' or indeed, how strong is England's claim to be a tolerant society?  He began by examining the history of immigration in the 1930s and the impact of British immigration laws between 1933 and 1938:  capital and skills useful to Britain were permitted to be imported, and jobs were available to immigrants so long as they could not be taken by British workers, Jews who could find a guarantor who was willing to put up £50 were enabled to enter and there were a few industrial trainee-ships available to foreigners.  Following Kristalnacht, or Night of Broken Glass in November 1938, when the Nazi SA attacked Jewish shops in Germany and Austria, the immigration policy in Britain was relaxed somewhat, but it was still not easy for the  less educated  Ostjuden from eastern Europe who were resident in Germany and Austria to access or grasp the intricacies of these laws.

Bill Williams has been able to trace the development of this phenomena of the Ostjuden in microcosm through his access to a hundred or so letters from the parents of a Ostjuden girl, who had herself been allowed to come to Manchester as a refugee through the program of 'Kinder transport' that prevailed while her parents were left to fend for themselves in Austria.  Her parents later moved illegally from Austria to what they regarded as the relative safety of Zagreb in what is now Croatia, but as the political situation developed they were later shot in the street by Croatian Fascists.  Yet, in the same way that the Ostjuden failed to appreciate the international situation in Europe, so the island people of England demonstrated both institutional blindness and anti-Semitism as Roman Catholics, Quakers, and even some leading Jews resisted the immigration of Jews into this country, in some cases owing to the fear that it would lead to more local anti-Semitism.  Bill concluded his lecture by saying that the claim to a liberal tradition in Manchester was really largely 'empty rhetoric'.

Steve Higginson, a former Liverpool postal worker and union official, described what was meant by 'Writing on the Wall' in Liverpool as being hidden history from below.  He explained how it had developed out of the Liverpool Docker's Dispute in the 1990s, and through the involvement of the playwright Jimmy McGovern.  He said that he had been influenced by E.P. Thompson's essay 'Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism', published in 1967, about the imposition of the time discipline on the English working class through the changes brought in by the industrial revolution.  Steve argued that Liverpool as a port city, had escaped to some degree this time neurosis owing to it being dominated more by nature rather than the factor of time, and as a consequence he felt that the culture there was distinct and different from that of the industrial inland towns and cities in the UK.  The appreciation of this distinction was leading the 'Writing on the Wall' group to reassess and reinterpret the 1911 Great Transport Strike; to reconsider the origins of the shop steward's movement and to examine ideas about anarchist influences in Liverpool on the 1911 dispute in the light of this.  He seemed to be saying that a kind of unconscious 'anarchism' was at work here which 'chimed' with the local workforce and was particularly best represented among the dockers.  He referred to a sympathetic strike that had taken place in Liverpool at the time of the execution of the anarchist educationalist, Francisco Ferrer, in Barcelona following the riots there that became known as the 'Semana Tragica' (Tragic Week).  A play is now understood to be a work in progress dealing with these events. 

Steve Higginson said that he had been influenced by Tom Nairn's book 'The Break-up of Britain' (1977), and saw in it a reflection of the 19th Century 'Council of the North', he felt that this should lead to a 'Northern Parliament'.   He argued that the North/ South Divide was now a significant reality and would have to be tackled.  This would seem to chime with the comments of Paul Salvison, a speaker at the previous Northern Radical History Network meeting in June.  It was reported that this coming Thursday, at the Adephi Hotel in Liverpool, there will be a meeting entitled 'Austerity!  My arse!' which will be addressed by Len McClusky and Ricky Tomlinson.

The next meeting of the NRHN is expected to be in January 2013, the venue is likely to be Bradford.

Northern Radical History Network: Final details

Hi All,
Please find below details of the Northern Radical History Network meeting on Saturday 6th October 2012 at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Apologies if notice has been delayed, it seems some of you on the email network have not received an email I sent about 3 weeks ago with the programme for the day (below). Please remember you can always find out news and updates on the NRHN blog at http://northernradicalhistory.wordpress.com /

• Please email me with any business you would like to put on the agenda for the (brief) business meeting at the start of the day.

• For lunch, there are nearby cafes or you are welcome to bring your own sandwich etc.

• The John Dalton building is the MMU building building opposite the old BBC building. If you’re coming from Manchester city centre, it’s before you reach the Mancunian Way motorway flyover.

If you have any queries, please drop me a line.

Best wishes,

Fiona

Northern Radical History Network Meeting

Northern Radical History Network October 2012 Meeting:


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 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 Higginson, researcher and writer, who will be discussing his work ‘Writing on the Wall' and other Liverpool projects.

The day will also include opportunities to share project work, concluding with open discussion around the themes of the radical history and its uses.

Programme for the day:

11am-11.30am Welcome, Introductions, Network business.

11.30am-12.30pm Speaker 1- Paper plus discussion.

12.30pm-1.30pm Lunch.

1.30pm-2.30pm Speaker 2- Paper plus discussion.

2.45pm-4.15pm ‘What is Radical History?’& projects.

4.15pm-4.30pm Feedback, Comments, Close of Meeting. 

A map of the Manchester Metropolitan University All Saints campus is here (opens PDF).

A map of Manchester Metropolitan Map is available at http://www2.mmu.ac.uk/travel/allsaints / and

http://www2.mmu.ac.uk/media/mmuacuk/content/documents/howtofindus/mmu_maps_allsaints_aytoun_old.pdf  

Any queries, please contact us.

Northern Radical History Network October 2012 Meeting

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 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 Higginson, researcher and writer, who will be discussing his work ‘Writing on the Wall' and other Liverpool projects

The day will also include opportunities to share project work, concluding with open discussion around the themes of the radical history and its uses.

Programme for the day:

11am-11.30am Welcome, Introductions, Network business

11.30am-12.30pm Speaker 1- Paper plus discussion

12.30pm-1.30pm Lunch

1.30pm-2.30pm Speaker 2- Paper plus discussion

2.45pm-4.15pm ‘What is Radical History?’& projects

4.15pm-4.30pm Feedback, Comments, Close of Meeting

A map of the Manchester Metropolitan University All Saints campus is here (opens PDF).

A map of Manchester Metropolitan Map is available at http://www2.mmu.ac.uk/travel/allsaints/  and http://www2.mmu.ac.uk/media/mmuacuk/content/documents/howtofindus/mmu_maps_allsaints_aytoun_old.pdf
Any queries, please contact us.

From Family History & Socialism with a Northern Accent to the Conspiracy Against the Person's Act

NORTHERN RADICAL HISTORY NETWORK

THE seats almost ran out at the Town Hall Tavern in Manchester last Saturday for the Northern Radical History Conference.  The attendance had a good geographical spread across the North from Cumbria in the North West to Derby and Sheffield in the South East, with Leeds, York, Huddersfield, Liverpool and Shropshire in between, not to mention Greater Manchester and Salford:  no-one came from Northumbria alas, unless we count Martin who is in exile from Durham.  There was a good mix of political tendencies including the SWP, the Labour Party as well as anarchists and libertarians , and a quarter of those present were women.  People sent in over a dozen apologies for none attendance.

As Steve Higginson from Liverpool, who was down to speak on 'Writing on the Wall', had been called to London on union business his spot was filled by Martin Bashford doing an item entitled 'Can Family History be Radical?'  Martin claimed that this kind of history could represent 'history from below'.  He said that from the 1950s there had been an evolution of family history alongside that of radical history and he referred to Raphael Samuel as hitting on the idea of studying family history and oral history.  Martin gave an example of Louise Rawe's study of the 'Match Girl's Strike' as an example of family history and likened it to investigative journalism.

Paul Salveson, as a well known northern historian living in Golcar near Huddersfield, argued that there was a distinctive Northern Socialism which, unlike the London socialists, was less influenced by Marx and more  by John Ruskin.  Paul said that Northern Socialism owed more to Carlyle, Robert Blatchford, Walt Whitman, Thoreau, Edward Carpenter, the Bolton lad Alan Clarke as well as Ruskin, and he insisted that socialism up here had a more environmental content.

The star turn of the day was Karen Springer (Derby People's History Group) speaking on 'The Alice Wheeldon Case'.  This strange First World War case, which seems to have slipped off the political and historical radar, involves a woman of working class origins, Alice Wheeldon, who became a radical and whose family living at 12, Pear Tree Road, Derby, sheltered conscientious objectors in 1916.  This ultimately led to her and her kids becoming of interest to both MI5 and the Russian KVD.  Alice was ultimately charged under the Conspiracy Against the Person's Act in 1916 and sentenced to a term of imprisonment.  This followed a trial involving witnesses like the 'amateur spy', Alex Gordon, who couldn't 'For Reasons of State' be cross-examined by the defence.  The prosecution had alleged Alice Wheeldon had acquired a quantity of poison with the intention of assassinating David Lloyd George, the then Prime Minister.  She was released from prison in late 1918 and died in early 1919.

Northern Radical History Network Final Agenda

I am pleased to announce a change on the afternoon agenda for the second Northern Radical History Network meeting. Instead of me banging on about my pet subject, we will hear about the case of Alice Wheeldon, accused of attempting to assassinate Lloyd-George in 1916 and the campaign around her case by our colleagues from Derby. Martin p.p. NRHN

Revised agenda:

NRHN Agenda: Saturday, 30 June 2012, Town Hall Tavern, Tib Lane, Manchester

1100-1115 Arrivals

1115-1300 MORNING SESSION - Learning from each other.

1115-1145 Round Table: introductions, reports, projects, news sharing by groups and individuals.

1145-1215 Organisational Issues: website and email list administration; organisation of future meetings; future events and projects, AOB.

1215-1300 Steve Higginson: Writing on the Wall and other Liverpool projects.

1300-1400 LUNCH.

1400-1600 AFTERNOON SESSION: Ideas and Arguments.

1400-1445 Paul Salveson: Socialism with a Northern Accent.

1500-1545 Karen Springer: The Alice Wheeldon case.

1545-1600 Meeting Review, Matters Arising, Future Activities.

NORTHERN RADICAL HISTORY NETWORK

NRHN Agenda: Saturday, 30 June 2012, Town Hall Tavern, Tib Lane, Manchester


1100-1115 Arrivals

1115-1300 MORNING SESSION - Learning from each other

1115-1145 Round Table: introductions, reports, projects, news sharing by groups and individuals

1145-1215 Organisational Issues: website and email list administration; organisation of future meetings; future events and projects, AOB

1215-1300 Steve Higginson: Writing on the Wall and other Liverpool projects

1300-1400 LUNCH

1400-1600 AFTERNOON SESSION: Ideas and Arguments

1400-1500 Paul Salveson: Socialism with a Northern Accent

1500-1545 Martin Bashforth: Can Family History be Radical History?;

1545-1600 Meeting Review, Matters Arising, Future Activities

Northern Radical History Network meeting:

Saturday, 31 March 2012, 11.00 to 16.30 at Town Hall Tavern, Tib Lane, Manchester
Minutes:
Chaired by Barry Woodling, there were ten people in attendance including latecomers, most from the general Manchester area. After introductions, Chris Draper from Llandudno, led the first session.
1100-1230 Chris Draper covered two topics (1) the idea of a Northern Radical History Network and (2) aspects of producing inexpensive, good quality publications.
He analysed the phrase 'Northern Radical History Network'. It should be 'northern' in order to set itself apart from southern and midland regional interests (for example), on the basis that localism represents the strongest basis for internationalism while providing roots and personality to set against the alienation of homogenised culture. It should be 'radical' in terms of its subject matter and in looking at the ordinary in a different way. In terms of 'history' it should emphasise the idea of stories, making the politics implicit to avoid 'turn-off' effect. It should be a 'network' because this is a non-hierarchical, libertarian form of association, loose in form, offering mutual help and 'fellowship'.
With regard to publications, using a variety of examples, some from his own production stable, he stressed the importance of good quality, good stories, local interest, offering something new in terms of research, having a light and humourous touch, and, above all, uncovering the previously forgotten or unrecognised.
Discussion followed, focussing mostly on the first part of the talk. There was general consensus on the value of history as an activity in the terms suggested, and on the idea of a loose network as the appropriate form of organisation. There was debate as to whether or not the formation of NRHN might be premature, when the only existing local groups in the north known to those present were in York, Nottingham and Newcastle, of which the two former were quite recent, while the other was a long-standing group in the 'Labour History' tradition. It was suggested that Manchester needed to get its own group organised before trying to launch a regional grouping, which, it was acknowledged, covered a potentially huge area within which there were already strong alternative regional identities (e.g. 'North-East', 'Yorkshire', 'Lancashire', 'Cumbria', 'North Midlands'). However it was also acknowledged that there were other individuals who could not make it to the meeting who could have added value from some of these localities and it was agreed that by strating such a network a deepening of activity in other localities could be stimulated. Meanwhile, there was value in co-operation around joint projects such as the Luddite Bicentenary.
Actions agreed: Martin to set up a blog on Wordpress and an email circulation list using Aktivix. Lynn to set up a Facebook identity that could be added as a link to the blog site. Provisionally a date of Saturday 30 June 2012 was set for a follow-up meeting, probably also in Manchester.
No actions or resolutions were made in terms of publishing at this stage.
1330-1430 Richard Holland on the comparative significance of the Luddites and Peterloo.
Richard noted that his efforts to set up a Luddite Bicentenary project had met a lukewarm reception outside of Yorkshire, despite its relevance to Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Cheshire and Lancashire and that this seemed to be matched in 'official' circles. He outlined the very specific nature of Luddism in a short period from 1811-1816, though there were examples of machine breaking outside of this period that did not make reference to the mythical 'General Ned Ludd'. One of its key features was that, despite popular presentation (falsification) it was not an anti-technology movement. It originated in 1811 in the hosiery framework knitting industry of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire where enterpises were on a relatively small scale and activity focussed on opposition to the 'wide stocking frame' which created a poor quality substitute to those produced by the skilled workers. It spread among cotton weavers and related workers in the Cheshire and Lancashire area, where large scale enterprises were being set up using steam looms and allowing the employment of unskilled machine minders. There were strong links in terms of ideas and activities through immigrant Irish workers to the political events in Ireland since the 1798 rebellion. There was a major outbreak in a short period from February to April 1812 in the West Riding of Yorkshire (with outbreaks on the Lancashire side of the Pennines) among the 'croppers' and 'shearmen' (cloth finishers), a well paid and often well educated group of skilled workers holding a key position in the clothing industry. The main period of wrecking activity was over by the end of April 1812, though there continued to be mass meetings, arms raids and other 'subversive' activities for some time afterwards and clear links were built up with political radical elements among Jacobin groups. The authorities creacked down with military intervention, 'special commissions' that were essentially show trials, and the administration of an oath of allegiance to draw people away from the Luddite oath-taking.
The presence of political radicalism creates a link to the events of 'Peterloo' in Manchester 1819, which was essentially a single meeting. While Luddism has been rarely celebrated, sometimes actively shunned, by the left and by official 'public history', there was been a contrary heavy focus on Peterloo. There are specific reasons. It fits in with the dominant narrative of an evolution towards mass parliamentary democracy; it fits the agenda of those who see the working-classes as victims rather than makers of history; it supports the importance of 'leadership' (in this case Henry Hunt), where Luddism had no leadership; while 'radical' in its time it was certainly not associated with any revolutionary or insurrectionary intent.
Richard outlined, in conclusion, his group's intervention at the People's History Museum to 'insert' on the museum timeline the missing like to the Luddites, both as a 'stunt' and in the form of correspondence. The action demonstrates how radical history can become a radical activity in itself.
Debate was generally supportive of Richard's thesis, with some attempt to point out that there was more lying behind Peterloo in terms of movement activity than the event itself, though it was acknowledged that much of this was lost in the way it was publicly presented and officially interpreted.
1430-1630 Roger Ball on the Bristol Radical History Group
BRHG has been in existence for over six years. It emerged from a radical sports group with a core of between 2 and 5 people.
Key inspirations:
1. The South London Radical History Group 'Past Tense'. These were not historians as such and therefore not hidebound by any preconceptions, they did not follow the usual local history group format and were keen on history as activity. They intervened in a Blake Exhibition against its corporate sponsorship; they organised very successful history walks drawing on the underbelly of South London.
2. The book 'The Many-Headed Hydra: The hidden history of the Revolutionary Atlantic' by Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker - because it broke from the dominant historical narrative of the growth of the nation state, while placing at the heart of the story the activity of slaves, sailors and others in creating a new world which happened to have Bristol very much in its centre. It thus helped Bristolians see themselves in a different way. This idea of shining a new light on hidden corners was transferred to the BRHG's first event: the recreation of the forgotten Quaker James Naylor, his dramatic entry into Bristol during the 17th C Commonwealth and his subsequent torture.
3. Being fed up with the dominant narrative locally, dominated by the Merchant Venturers purely because they had loads of money and no opposition. BRHG wanted to intervene against this distorted vision of the past from a standpoint that understood the importance of Capital and Class. Amongst such developments was demonstrating that sailors had been key to the abolitionist movement against slavery, demolishing the idea of a native racism.
Key learning points:
When constructing events, draw in the local people, don’t worry about being too professional, care more about the spirit, ideas and culture of the event than some 'accuracy' fetish.
At meetings, discussions etc, don’t be afraid to make academics work for you (be persistent until they say 'no') and put them on the same stage as well-informed locals with their own knowledge and insights.
Good events are: public talks, discussions, bands and gigs (especially for publicity and fundraising), choral evenings, publishing (see pamphlets); regular events such as a Radical History Week.
Money is raised through a bookstall, bars and coffee events and donations - avoid grants like the plague and try to avoid charging entry fees.
Aims: to uncover hidden histories by drawing closer to primary sources in time; attacking distorted official history and false popular memory that relies on the dominant establishment narrative; also critique so-called 'radical history' and how it is presented; critically learn from past successes as well as failures, going away from the idea of victimhood; make links to contemporary issues such as 'the struggle for the global commons'; use elections as a vehicle to question the dominant presentation of 'democracy'; pick on items such as blacklisting
Tips:
1. Lots of people are interested in history: break out of the political ghetto to reach them
2. Make activities central and accessible to newcomers, reaching out beyond the usual activists
3. Do something different
4. Use 'blagging' as a technique to get support: BRHG had no status to begin with but did things anyhow, used pester power and built up contacts through contacts
5. Division of labour within the group on a project by project basis (i.e. no formal structure) - not without its problems at times, but generally more flexible and sustainable
6. When you get popular do not get drawn into the attention zone of officialdom - do what you want to do not what they want you to free of charge when they are getting paid!
7. Grants are a nightmare, absorb too much energy, cause delays and problems - they are a dead end. Stick to self-reliance - in general time is more of an issue than cash
8. Don't be too pedantic about getting things exactly right, especially with 're-enactment'
9. Don't dismiss crazy ideas - history needs to become political
10. Use imagination - ideas are more important than facts: but record your meetings well so that ideas are preserved for future use
11. Avoid being labelled: even the term 'Radical' while vague can be generally scary to some - make sure you are difficult to categorize [this tends to be also the biggest internal problem for arguments over what is a valid activity]
Discussion
Numbers involved: 2 to 5 at the beginning, but operated through building a network around this and actively involving others
Publications: use a local small printer who produces good quality results, usually an initial run of 300 but some run into thousands over time; distribution through local outlets, radical bookshops and distributors and book stalls
Use specialists: example of 'Just Seeds' [ http://www.justseeds.org/ ] an artists co-operative in America - did 'counter-recreation' intervening in a public Victoriana event with an 1890s steelworkers demo complete with police crackdown; on a radical preacher, they made a blow-up church which they put on the original site, now a car park
Build up credibility and links over a period; network with other local publishers; include events for children; develop resources: don’t be afraid of challenging subjects: e.g. gangs, riots: meanwhile 'labour' and 'worker' can be words that turn people off.