Radical Bristol Archives - Page 6 of 28 Bristol Radical History Group

WWI Resistance in South Bristol

Film showing: Taking a Holiday

Taking a Holiday - a film about war resistance in South Bristol during World War 1. The amazing story of the secret beneath a Bedminster bike shop. A tale of struggle in wartime – full of intrigue, escapes, comradeship…and bikes. What does it mean to be a refugee and on the run in your own country? Who will give you a bed for the night, a job… or a means of escape? Puppetry, documentary material and songs combine in a narrative based on the true stories of ordinary Bristol people during 1914/17, […]

‘The Recent Politicisation of The Riot Charge’

BRHG workshop talk and book stall at the Bristol Radical Bookfair on 10 December

BRHG is pleased to support the latest Bristol Radical Bookfair on Saturday 10th December, co-ordinated by Active Distro, and hosted at the Exchange, on Old Market, BS2 0EJ. All are welcome at this free event. As Active Distro state in the FB event and Headfirst Bristol listings: We're under attack from all sides, and we need radical ideas and community more than ever. At the bookfair, you'll find new and second hand titles, kids books, novels, calendars and more from radical publishers, zine […]

The battle of Melvin Square – Knowle West and anti-fascism in the 1930s

7.00pm, Tuesday 29th November, Filwood Library, Filwood Broadway, Bristol BS4 1JN During the 1930’s militant antifascism against Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts was ingrained and established amongst the Bristolian working-class. Discontented by their many defeats in the inner-city, industrial working-class districts of Bristol the British Union of Fascists (BUF) turned their attention to the new garden suburbs springing up on the outskirts of the city. Unfortunately for the BUF, working-class […]

Facing up to the Fascists

Confronting the National Front in Bristol in the 1970s

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Thurs 27th October 12.30-1.30pm Foyer, Bristol Central Library, College Green, Bristol, BS1 5TL As part of the ongoing exhibition of resistance to fascism in the city in the 1970s at the Central Reference Library Colin Thomas will speak about how the Anti-Nazi League and Rock Against Racism resisted the National Front in Bristol in the 1970s and 80s – and won. The first warning came fifty years ago – the National Front decided to put up candidates in Bristol. The party was led by John Tyndall […]

The Cry of the Poor

"Being a Letter from Sixteen Working Men of various trades, to the Sixteen Aldermen of Bristol."

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The University of Fishponds 30th October 2022, 7pm - 9pm The Nissen Hut, Eastville Park £5 per person SOLD OUT! This impassioned and lucidly argued letter, written in 1871, set out demands for improvements to the quality of life for Bristol's working people: clean air, parks, bathing places, libraries, a fish market and an end to bridge tolls. Over the subsequent 20 years most of these demands were met. However, 150 years on from that letter we find ourselves fighting to retain some of those […]

Claude Mickleson

By Trish Mensah

Claude Mickleson, socialist activist, born 1923. Claude’s story is of a working-class life with all its ups and downs. His different jobs and life experiences provide the backdrop to his continued political activism as he approaches his 100th birthday. Claude was interviewed by Trish Mensah for the Activist Memories series, supported by Bristol Older People’s Forum. The Activist Memories series captures, through oral history interviews, the life experience of those who have fought for a better […]

Exhibition: Facing up to the Fascists

Resisting the National Front in Bristol in the 1970s

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1st October to 17th November 2022: 1st Floor, Bristol Central Reference Library, College Green, Bristol, BS1 5TL (now extended to 17th November). Launch event: 4.00pm, Monday 3rd October, Bristol Room, Bristol Central Reference Library Bristol Radical History Group presents an innovative exhibition of resistance to fascism in the city in the 1970s, through a collection of rare contemporary posters, badges, pamphlets, photographs and film. This visually powerful exhibition considers the role that […]

Conflict and Struggle in the Arms Industry

A Memoir of a Bristol Trade Union Activist

By Andy Danford

In this important memoir, Andy Danford brings to life his experience as a worker and senior union representative in Bristol’s arms industry during the 1970s and 80s. During these two decades life on the shop and office floors, and the strength of workplace trade unionism, shifted dramatically, as the advent of Thatcherism marked the beginning of the sustained attack on worker and union rights which extends to this day. Against this background of change, this memoir provides a rich account of the […]

Bristol Radical Bookfair on 25th September

Come and visit the BRHG book stall

Bristol Radical History Group is once again supporting the Bristol Radical Bookfair. We'll be taking along our book stall, with our Radical Pamphleteer series of publications, and a choice selection of other titles designed to interest, inform and stir you into action. In addition, regular BRHG author Rosemary L Caldicott will be speaking at 12 noon, as part of a series of talks/workshops, about her book Nautical Women and the histories therein. Do come and say hello, one of the reasons we enjoy […]

Steve Philbey

By Roger

Many years ago, stuck in a traffic jam on the Bath Road bridge, I looked up to see a series of massive slogans expertly pasted onto the advertising hoardings on the billboards. The first on an insurance company advert said: WHO IS SPARTACUS? The second said: ARE YOU SPARTACUS? The third over a group of 'Kwik Fit Fitters' said: WE ARE SPARTACUS And finally the last in the row... YOU ARE SPARTACUS This was one of my first introductions to the work of the Saint Just Mob, artists and subvertisers […]