Blog - Bristol Radical History Group

Wiltshire Radical History Day

By Randell Brantley

White Horse (Wiltshire) Trades Union Council Wiltshire Radical History Day Saturday 29th March 2014 10am-4pm The Cause 42 The Causeway, Chippenham SN15 3DD Free entry Bar and buffet lunch Speakers throughout the day include: Jeremy Corbyn MP from Wiltshire to Westminster Professor Steve Poole from the University of the West of England on The gallows, the gibbet and the rural poor Melissa Barnett, Curator of Chippenham Museum on Dame Florence Hancock Nigel Costley, South West TUC Regional […]

Mythical Battle Over WW1

By Randell Brantley

A few days ago Dan Snow wrote a piece entitled Lions and donkeys: 10 big myths about World War One debunked on the BBC website. The tone of the article was strange, in that it seemed to be implying that World War 1 was not as bad as everybody thinks and that and that a lot of working class soldiers quite enjoyed it while upper class officers were martyred. The 10 myths were: It was the bloodiest war in history to that point. No, it was our civil war in the mid 17th century Most soldiers died. […]

Introducing Chipping Norton’s Real Heroes

By Randell Brantley

The events in December to mark the 100th anniversary of the Bliss Mill stike in Chipping Norton have made this weekend's addition of The Morning Star. Chipping Norton, a small picturesque Cotswold market town in deepest Oxfordshire, will be associated in the minds of those who don't know it with a few notorious names. Those would be its local MP, one David Cameron, Rebekah Brooks, the disgraced former CEO of News International and the pompous television petrolhead Jeremy Clarkson. Needless to […]

HOOF New Year’s Message

By Randell Brantley

New Year 2014 message from Rich Daniels, Hands Off Our Forest (HOOF) chairman. THREE years ago, on January 3, 2011, more than 3,000 of us gathered during a blizzard the field at Speech House to send a message to the Government: the Forest of Dean belongs to us, all of us, and we will not allow it to be sold off, disposed or transferred to private hands. Never! Six weeks later, we were told they’d got the message and the Government performed a ‘mea culpa’. “We’re sorry. We got it wrong.” But we […]

Bliss Mill Strike Centenary

By Randell Brantley

Here are some pictures from an event to make 100 years since the Bliss Mill Strike in chipping Norton which took place on 18th Dec. 2013.

Save Our Chartist Mural

By Randell Brantley

"Following the recent decision by Welsh Preservation group, Cadw, not to list Newport's much-loved Chartist Mural for preservation, the local council have now announced that they plan to knock it down to make way for a £100m shopping centre planned by commercial developers, Queensberry Real Estate. The 'Save Our Chartist Mural' campaign would therefore like to invite you to become one of our supporters (1,600+ facebook followers and 3,400+ petitioners) by joining our demonstration and helping us […]

South Wales Chartist Convention

By Randell Brantley

The *South Wales Chartist Convention *(hosted by the new University of South Wales ) is being held on Saturday 2nd November 10.15 - 16.15 at the university's City Campus, Newport. This event is free of charge for all, but advanced booking is required to les.james22@gmail.com. Also if required, please order ticket(s) immediately for the optional buffet lunch available at £6 per person. Of course, you can make your own arrangements for lunch. The Coffee shop will be open all day until 3pm. City […]

Swindon Radical Bookfair

By Randell Brantley

Supply Chains in Capitalism Today: From Foxconn to Wal-Mart

By Randell Brantley

Date: Thursday 27th June Time: 7.30-9.30pm Location: Hydra Books, 34 Old Market St, Bristol, BS2 0EZ Price: Donation Speaker: Gifford Hartman Supply Chains in Capitalism Today: From Foxconn to Wal-Mart One of the forms in which the working class exists today is at the various nodal points along global commodity chains. Global production is based on a system of "factories without walls," where increasingly components are manufactured using an inventory-less subcontracting system that races around […]

Werqin’ 9 to 5

By Randell Brantley

Article: Werqin’ 9 to 5: cursory notes on antiwork politics from Dolly Parton to Shangela Laquifa Commet: Coincidentally, I have been reading Stayin' Alive: The 1970s and the last days of the working class (J. Cowie 2010) which looks at the changes in labour relations that occurred between the 1960s and 1980s (i.e. the assault on the 'Keynesian' social contract by the US working class, the rightward shift of sections of the white working class in the late 70s, and the struggles over ethnicity […]