Any movement which is ignorant of its own history is a prisoner of other people’s history. We can’t possibly win the future unless we keep our hands on our own past. (Gwyn Alf Williams)
2023 sees the 5th annual Bristol Radical History Festival. This is hosted as usual by the fantastic M Shed, the museum on the city’s historic harbourside that tells the story of Bristol and its unique place in the world. We warmly invite you to join us at this popular event.
We have a full programme (see bottom of page), which is again based on two main themes:
Radical Bristol and the Visual Arts
This theme explores radical visual artists in Bristol over two centuries. Hazel Gower and Leigh Thomas will discuss Romantic-era painters Rolinda and Ellen Sharples, influential not just for their art, but as founders of Bristol’s Royal West of England Academy (RWA). We look forward to a rare “return” to the city by the charismatic nineteenth-century designer and political philosopher William Morris, who lectured at the Bristol Museum and Library in 1885. Moving forward with our time machine, Marie Mulvey-Roberts, co-curator of a highly successful exhibition on Angela Carter and visual art at the RWA will discuss the delights and challenges of curating works reflecting the visual imagination of one of the most important writers of the twentieth century. Members of the Monica Sjöö Curatorial Collective will discuss the relationship between the art and the radical activism of long-term Clifton resident, Monica Sjöö, while Stephen Lisney will consider the modernist work of the feminist-socialist painter, Doris Hatt.
Bristol Trade Union History: Then and Now
This theme will aim to provide a historical context for the recent burst of trade union activity in Bristol and throughout the U.K. Ralph Darlington, Mike Richardson and Bob Whitfield will focus on trade union disputes in the past and Sheila Caffrey, President of the Bristol Trades Union Council on its 150th aniversary, and Dave Chapple will be bringing the story up to date. Silu Pascoe will be speaking on the ‘Bristol Bus Boycott: Race, Unions and Civil Rights’ and Andy Danford will consider the campaign to convert from arms production to socially useful production in the Bristol aerospace industry in the 1970s and 1980s. To mark the anniversary of the Bristol Trades Council there will also be a screening of ‘100 Years of Struggle’, a film made by BBC Bristol to mark the Council’s centenary and introduced by Colin Thomas.
It’s not just talks…
The exhibitions of photos, flyers and posters will include:
- Facing up to the Fascists: Confronting the National Front in Bristol in the 1970s [Guided tour 12:00pm]
- Subvertising in Bristol – The St. Just Mob [Guided tour 12.20pm]
- Bristol against apartheid [Guided tour 1.20pm]
- Visual mapping project – Women’s threads of Bristol [Guided tour 2.20pm]
There will be history walks, performance and lots of stalls with books and merchandise from local and national groups. As always, the festival is a free event with no booking required.
Stalls
We are pleased to host the following stalls: Bristol Radical History Group, Remembering the Real World War I Group, Anarchist Communist Group, Bookhaus, Bristol AFed, Bristol & Bath Cuba Solidarity Campaign, Bristol Solidarity Federation, Bristol Squatted, Bristol Trades Council, MayDay Rooms, Monica Sjöö Collective, Past Pixels, Peoples’ Republic of Stokes Croft, Protect our NHS, Radical Poster Collective, SixPointsCardiff, Tangent Books, Welsh Underground Network, Wessex Solidarity, West of England & South Wales Women’s Network, Base Bristol Collective, White Horse (Wiltshire) Trades Union Council.
Publicity
You can also follow this event via social media for the Festival… please share!
You can download and print a Bristol Radical History Festival flyer (pdf file) or A4 Poster (jpg), featuring Walter Crane’s Garland for May Day (1895).
Facebook: Bristol Radical History Festival event page here.
Twitter: @BrisRadHis #BRHF2023
Programme
The following programme of events will be updated regularly – check back soon!
Saturday 22 April - Talks (drag left/right):
| Date | Time | Location | Title | Details | With | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| , 2023 | |
Events Suite Level 2 | Painted out of History – Ellen and Rolinda Sharples | Mother and daughter artists Ellen and Rolinda Sharples lived through turbulent times on both sides of the Atlantic during the Georgian era. For a woman to become a professional artist was a radical […] | Hazel Gower, Leigh Thomas |
More |
| , 2023 | |
Studio 1&2 Level 1 | Labour Revolt in Britain 1910-14 | The ‘Labour Revolt’ that swept Britain between 1910-14 was one of the most sustained, dramatic and violent explosions of industrial militancy and social conflict the country has ever […] | Ralph Darlington | More |
| , 2023 | |
Events Suite Level 2 | Curating Angela Carter: Bristol, Art and Writing | Angela Carter is one of the most important writers of the twentieth century, renowned for her dazzling imagination and radical creativity. Whilst living in Bristol for most of the 1960s, she took a […] | Marie Mulvey-Roberts | More |
| , 2023 | |
Studio 1&2 Level 1 | 100 Years of Struggle | 100 Years of Struggle is an unusual documentary made to mark the centenary of the Bristol Trades Union Council (BTUC) in 1973. Although it was transmitted by BBC Bristol, it was produced by the […] | Colin Thomas | More |
| , 2023 | |
Events Suite Level 2 | The life and legacy of artist, activist, eco-feminist and writer Monica Sjöö (1938-2005) | The Women For Life on Earth march took place in 1982 and as we pass 2022, 40 years later we are drawn back to the work of Monica Sjöö, artist, activist and writer, who continued to hope that the […] | Maggie Parks, Annie Johnston, Su Fahy |
More |
| , 2023 | |
Studio 1&2 Level 1 | The Bristol Bus Boycott : Race, Unions and Civil Rights | The 1963 bus boycott against the Bristol Omnibus Company (BOC) was the first black-led campaign against racial discrimination in post-WW2 Britain. In the early 1960s,the black citizens of Bristol were […] | Silu Pascoe | More |
| , 2023 | |
Events Suite Level 2 | Doris Hatt : Art, Principles and Politics | Twentieth century artist Doris Hatt (1890-1969) was a woman ahead of her time. She was a feminist and socialist, and a pioneer of modernism in Britain, but her life and work have been […] | Stephen Lisney | More |
| , 2023 | |
Studio 1&2 Level 1 | Trade Unions Then – Tramways 1901 and Print 1985-86 | The Bristol Tramways Lock-Out, 1901 - Rob Whitfield In the summer of 1901 the Bristol Tramways Company sacked 90 employees who had recently joined the Gasworkers’ and General Labourers’ Union. Another […] | Mike Richardson, Rob Whitfield |
More |
| , 2023 | |
Events Suite Level 2 | ‘William Morris’ returns and Alfred Stevens discovered | Art and Labour William Morris (1834-1896) was, and is, one of England’s most famous nineteenth-century socialists. On the 3rd March 1885, the famous Victorian designer came to Bristol to deliver a […] | Ciaran Walsh, Roger Ball |
More |
| , 2023 | |
Studio 1&2 Level 1 | Conflict and Struggle in the Arms Industry | Andy Danford brings to life his experience as a worker and senior union representative in Bristol’s arms industry during the 1970s and 1980s. During these two decades, life on the shop and office […] | Andy Danford | More |
| , 2023 | |
Studio1&2 Level 1 | Trades Union Now | Sheila Caffrey will talk about some of the picket lines and broader campaigns seen in Bristol in the last couple of years, and some of the bigger protests and how these have also affected the mood […] | Dave Chapple, Sheila Caffrey |
More |
| , 2023 | |
Events Suite Level 2 | Lost and Found: Bristol’s underground visual artists | This panel considers the work of contemporary artists who have had an influence and impact on Bristol but sought little exposure for themselves. Two artists who have recently passed away, Steve […] | Ruth Parkinson, Bnar Sardar, Davey Woodward |
More |
Saturday 22 April - Walks (drag left/right):
| Date | Time | Location | Title | Details | With | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| , 2023 | |
Meet outside M Shed | Cholera Humbug! Epidemics and Radical Politics in the 1830s | An urban walk that explores the political reverberations of the first cholera outbreak in Bristol in 1832. The 1830s was a time of radical political and social division in Britain. At this moment a […] | Molly Conisbee | More |
| , 2023 | |
Meet outside Royal West of England Academy (RWA) | Ellen and Rolinda Sharples | What is the connection between the Bristol Sharples family of artists, the American Revolution of the 1780s and the Royal West of England Academy of Art? Join Lee Cox in exploring the places […] | Lee Cox | More |
| , 2023 | |
M Shed Front Entarnce | Bristol City Centre Squatted: the last 50 years | A walking tour as part of Bristol Radical History Festival Meet at the MShed front entrance at 4.00pm. Finish at the Louisiana around 5:30pm. Bristol’s city centre has been a focus for […] | Bristol Squatted | More |
Saturday 22 April - Performance (drag left/right):
| Date | Time | Location | Title | Details | With | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| , 2023 | Ground Floor Foyer | Red Notes Choir | Catch Bristol’s wonderful Red Notes Choir, who will support the Bristol Radical History Festival by performing at 11:30am. They’ll be singing in the Ground Floor Foyer by the M Shed main entrance. The […] | Red Notes Choir | More |
Saturday 22 April - Films (drag left/right):
| Date | Time | Location | Title | Details | With | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| , 2023 | |
Film room Level 1 | Swords into Ploughshares | Swords into Ploughshares (60min, 2018) is an edited version of The Plan, a documentary made by Steve Sprung. It tells the story of how and why Lucas Aerospace workers in the 1970s evolved a Corporate […] | More | |
| , 2023 | |
Film room Level 1 | Reel Lives – a social history of Bristol | Reel Lives (6 x 25 mins) is a six part series that tells the social history of the 1930s to the 1960s of Bristol and Somerset through home movies and the stories of ordinary people. It was produced by […] | More | |
| , 2023 | Film room Level 1 | 100 Years of Struggle | 100 Years of Struggle (30 mins) is a film made in 1973 to mark the centenary of the Bristol Trades Union Council. Although it was transmitted by BBC Bristol, it was produced and narrated by members of […] | More |
Saturday 22 April - Exhibitions (drag left/right):
| Date | Time | Location | Title | Details | With | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| , 2023 | |
Foyer Level 2 | Facing up to the Fascists: Confronting the National Front in Bristol in the 1970s | 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, […] | Rosemary L Caldicott | More |
| , 2023 | |
Foyer Level 2 | Women’s Threads of Bristol | ‘Women’s Threads of Bristol’ aims to create a comprehensive visual illustration of places in Bristol that are named after women – roads, buildings, parks, blue plaques, murals – all are relevant. It […] | Zoe Gibbons | More |
| , 2023 | |
Foyer Level 2 | Subvertising – The St Just Mob | The Saint-Just Mob have been active subvertisers in Bristol since 2001 intervening on billboards, hoardings and statues using pasted words on lining paper. Part of the battle to free our Commons. Over […] | Ruth Parkinson | More |
| , 2023 | |
Foyer Level 2 | Bristol Against Apartheid | The exhibition provides examples of the activism of Bristol Anti-Apartheid Movement (BAAM) in its campaign to raise awareness of the struggle against Apartheid in South Africa. Formed in 1964, BAAM […] | Trish Mensah | More |