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Bristol Radical History Festival 2023

Saturday 22nd April, 2023

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 […]

Tremors of Discontent: A Life In Print

The Nissen Hut, Eastville Park, Bristol, BS5 6QL Author and historian Mike Richardson on his recently published book, “Tremors of Discontent: My Life in Print 1970-1988". Mike worked for DRG Flexible Packaging In Filwood Road between 1970-1986, and his talk covers his experiences as a shop steward at a time of much industrial unrest at the company. This talk organised by the The People's University of Fishponds. Booking details here.

Putting Welsh history on TV

7.00-9.00pm 3 March 2023 Clwb Y Bont, 85A Taff St, Pontypridd CF37 4SL This talk with video extracts, will look at attempts to turn the complexities of Welsh history into accessible television. It will include clips from Horrible Histories, Huw Edwards's The Story of Wales and The Dragon Has Two Tongues in which Wynford Vaughan Thomas and Professor Gwyn Alf Williams offer two very different versions of Welsh history. The latter series, produced and directed by Colin Thomas, was recently […]

The Slave Decks

A retrospective account of life onboard the Hannibal slave ship

By Rosemary L Caldicott

Warning – Due to the nature of the topic this article is not suitable for children The stench of the hold…was so intolerably loathsome that it was dangerous to remain there for any time…but now that the whole ship’s cargo were confined together, it became absolutely pestilential.[1] Let me begin by saying that there was nothing unique about the utterly appalling conditions that existed on the Hannibal slave ship: All merchant slave ships were floating prisons of cruelty and depravity. For the […]

Unveiling of a blue plaque to Hilda Cashmore

Quaker, feminist, educator and social worker

The unveiling of a blue plaque to Hilda Cashmore quaker, feminist, educator and social worker and the first warden of Bristol's Barton Hill Settlement will take place at 12.00 noon on International Women's Day, Wednesday, 8th March 2023 at Wellspring Settlement, 43 Ducie Road, Barton Hill BS5 OAX. Quaker, feminist, social reformer and educator, whose work led to her election as the first woman president of the British Association of Residential Settlements, Cashmore was one of a number of […]

Myanmar Diaries

Citizen journalism against 21st century regime terror

Two years and one month after the military coup in Myanmar, the BristolWithMyanmar campaign will be showing Myanmar Diaries at Bristol's Cube Cinema on March 1st, from 7pm. It is a film about life under the regime of terror in Myanmar since February 1st 2021, told through personal stories by a group of anonymous young Burmese filmmakers (the Myanmar Film Collective). This is the second annual event at the Cube, following on from last year’s A night of solidarity with Myanmar, organised by […]

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, […]

Book Launch: Conflict and Struggle in the Arms Industry

With: Andy Danford

This memoir written by Bristol trade union activist, Andy Danford, provides a rich account of the actions of rank-and-file trade unionists to improve the pay, conditions and job security of the British Aerospace workers in Bristol, culminating in a notable industrial and political struggle to convert the Filton arms factory to the production of socially useful products. Alas, this final campaign failed, and in his account, Danford reveals the complexities and political difficulties of achieving […]

‘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 Rise and Fall of Edward Colston

7.00pm, Tues 13th December, Bishopsworth Library, Bishopsworth Rd, Bristol BS13 7LN In November 2014 the Bishop of Bristol, preaching to school students, claimed that ‘speculation’ about the ‘business roots’ of the city’s philanthropic icon, Edward Colston, was merely ‘speculation’. These incendiary words inspired new historical research into Colston’s slave-trading activities and the origins of his role as a ‘City Father.’ They also led to the formation of the campaign group Countering Colston […]