EVENT CANCELLED. Northumbria University: Will Kaufman performs a live documentary - Woody Guthrie and “Old Man Trump”
2020-03-11 18:00 (Europe/London) | Room 020a, Squires Building, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8SB
This event has been cancelled. The organisers hope to reschedule it and we will post once the new details become available.

American Studies at Northumbria, in collaboration with the Institute of the Humanities and the Tyneside Branch of the Historical Association present
Woody Guthrie and “Old Man Trump”

In December 1950, Woody Guthrie moved his family into a new apartment in Brooklyn’s Beach Haven. His new landlord, it turned out, was none other than Fred Trump, father of the current US president. Over 60 years later, Donald Trump would proclaim on the campaign trail: “My legacy is my father’s legacy.” It was, among other things, a legacy of corruption and race-hatred, as Woody Guthrie soon found out.
Will Kaufman – singer, multi-instrumentalist, and Professor of American Studies at the University of Central Lancashire – is recognised as the world’s leading authority on Woody Guthrie. He is the author of Woody Guthrie, American Radical (2011), Woody Guthrie’s Modern World Blues (2017), and Mapping Woody Guthrie (2019).
In 2014, Will discovered, buried in the Guthrie archives, previously unpublished song lyrics and other writings condemning Fred Trump’s racism. He has now turned these discoveries into a new music and a spoken-word presentation, following on from his celebrated shows, Woody Guthrie: Hard Times and Hard Travelin’ and Woody Guthrie: The Long Road to Peekskill.
Woody Guthrie and “Old Man Trump” brings to life all the anger and contempt that Guthrie felt for those in power who will deny justice to their fellow human beings on account of the colour of their skin. Against the backdrop of Guthrie’s racial awakening and emergent activism, Will introduces such previously unheard songs as “Trump Made a Tramp Out of Me” and “Beach Haven Ain’t My Home,” along with a host of other Guthrie songs about racial injustice and struggle. All in all, we hear Woody Guthrie speaking and singing from beyond the grave, warning us about the dangers of ignoring and repeating history.

Praise for Will Kaufman:
Listen up all you Jim Crow fascists and you race-hate mongers, too:
Will Kaufman is a-comin’ and he’s got his eye on you.
Won’t brake for no excuses, won’t stand no messin’ around,
Your bigot ways can’t save you ’cause Will Kaufman’s gonna run you down.
– Ry Cooder
No one can understand the American people without listening to Woody Guthrie. Will Kaufman’s doing important work here. – Tom Paxton

I thank Will Kaufman for introducing a new generation of Europeans to “the other America.” It’s a wonderful job he’s doing. – Pete Seeger

Will presents this exhilarating show in the fastest hour and a half you are likely to witness when you consider the breadth and depth of his subject. He performs Woody’s songs with great skill and understanding, playing the guitar, banjo and fiddle with enviable panache and brio. His presentation is accomplished with great musicality, wit, honesty, and compassion. – Ralph McTell

I so appreciate all of your efforts to take his legacy further. Who knows where he’ll end up! – Nora Guthrie

www.willkaufman.com

Newcastle University: 2020 Festival of Oral History
2020-03-24 - 2020-03-27 | Newcastle University
We are delighted to announce the full programme for our 2020 Festival of Oral History, taking place across March 24-26. The festival will focus on the future of oral history, and will include a public keynote lecture by Dr Indira Chowdhury from the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology in Bangalore.

The festival will include a number of discussion panels on the future of oral history, promoting discussion among practitioners and teachers on how oral historians can address future challenges and opportunities.

Please see the full programme of events here. To register for the festival, email oralhistory@newcastle.ac.uk and please do let us know if you would like to be a discussant on any of the panels that have been organised.

Tyne Bank Brewery: Five Centuries of the Tyne
2020-03-24 17:00 - 20:00 UTC | Tyne Bank Brewery, 375 Walker Rd, Byker,, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2AB
From Leona Skelton, Northumbria University
I’ve organised a free Tyne history event with Tyne Rivers Trust at the Tyne Bank Brewery on Tuesday 24 March, 5.00pm – 8.00pm which I think NELHS members could get a lot out of, even though it’s focused on the management of the river first and foremost rather than labour history. Attendees need to register for a free ticket at the following link as places are limited.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/96057070283
This a fun, informal, social event providing an opportunity to learn about the experiences and challenges of Tyne managers and conservators over five centuries. The evening comprises a pub quiz, archival stories, interactive discussions and a presentation to inspire us all to consider the challenges of working, living and playing with the River Tyne over a longer-term chronology.
Using a ‘Tyneline’, we will debate how and why our relationships with the Tyne have changed so dramatically over time and what this might mean for the river’s future. A buffet will be provided free of charge and the brewery bar will be open.
The event will be led by Dr. Leona Skelton, an environmental historian of water, rivers and sanitation infrastructure in Britain (1500 – present) at Northumbria University, and author of Tyne after Tyne: An Environmental History of a River’s Battle for Protection, 1529 – 2015

CANCELLED - Jesmond Library: Eileen: The Making of George Orwell
2020-03-27 19:00 UTC | Jesmond Library, St George's Terrace, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 2DL
This meeting has beeen cancelled as part of the measures to limit the Covid 19 outbreak.
Eileen: The Making of George Orwell, an interview with biographer Sylvia Topp at Jesmond Library, St. Georges Terrace NE2 2DL on Friday 27 March at 7.00pm
This is the never-before-told story of George Orwell’s first wife Eileen O’Shaughnessy, who was born and brought up in South Shields and who shaped, supported, and even saved the life of one of the twentieth century’s great writers.
Sylvia, who lives in Kingston, Ontario will be in the UK to support the publication of Eileen in March.

CANCELLED - First Tuesday: Janet Allen. The Miners Strike 1984/85 – my role as newly qualified solicitor with Thompsons
2020-04-07 19:00 UTC | The Bridge Hotel, Castle Square, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne & Wear, NE1 1RQ, United Kingdom
This meeting has beeen cancelled as part of the measures to limit the Covid 19 outbreak.
Where possible, meetings will be rescheduled once this becomes possible. Notices will appear on this website as soon as this happens.
In an effort to defeat the striking miners the government, judiciary and police used the law as a method of reducing the civil liberties of striking miners and their supporters by all possible means.
Road blocks were employed to intercept suspected pickets. Those arrested on the picket line faced draconian bail conditions often including curfews to prevent further demonstrations. Medieval charges of riot and unlawful assembly were used against those attending the mass pickets at both Orgreave and Mansfield.
Mike Mansfield the leading barrister at the Orgreave trials referred to the cases as “the worst example of mass frame up in this country in this century”.
I joined Thompsons in September 1983 and Bill Etherington, then General Secretary of the Durham Colliery Mechanics Association instructed Thompsons to be the union lawyers. The Durham NUM followed later. I represented two Durham Mechanics arrested at Orgreave and one at Mansfield.
My day to day experience of representing striking miners during the period from March 1984 to March 1985 will form the basis of this presentation.

CANCELLED - First Tuesday: John Charlton will talk about the 1931 general election
2020-05-05 19:00 UTC | The Bridge Hotel, Castle Square, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne & Wear, NE1 1RQ, United Kingdom
This meeting has beeen cancelled as part of the measures to limit the Covid 19 outbreak.
Where possible, meetings will be rescheduled once this becomes possible. Notices will appear on this website as soon as this happens.

Online History Courses from Ronnie Hanna
2020-05-26 - 2020-07-03
Ronnie Hanna has asked us to mention these three online history courses which may be of interest to some of our members and supporters. The courses were originally part of Queen’s University Belfast’s Open Learning Programme for the spring, which was cancelled due to the current situation. If you are interested, please contact Ronnie at: ronnie.hanna@btinternet.com
26 May: The American Presidency in the Twentieth Century
29 June: A City Upon a Hill: The Pilgrim Fathers and America’s Puritan Legacy
2 July: The Korean War

CANCELLED - Second Tuesday: Nigel Todd will talk about the 1983 general election
2020-06-09 19:00 UTC | The Bridge Hotel, Castle Square, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne & Wear, NE1 1RQ, United Kingdom

Janet Allan will talk on The Miners Strike 1984/85 – my role as newly qualified solicitor with Thompsons (by Zoom, link to be circulated)
2020-08-25 19:00 (Europe/London) | Zoom
Please let us know if you would like to attend this meeting by clicking this link and giving us your email address and name. We will then contact you before the meeting with the Zoom link.
In an effort to defeat the striking miners the government, judiciary and police used the law as a method of reducing the civil liberties of striking miners and their supporters by all possible means.
Road blocks were employed to intercept suspected pickets. Those arrested on the picket line faced draconian bail conditions often including curfews to prevent further demonstrations. Medieval charges of riot and unlawful assembly were used against those attending the mass pickets at both Orgreave and Mansfield.
Mike Mansfield the leading barrister at the Orgreave trials referred to the cases as “the worst example of mass frame up in this country in this century”.
I joined Thompsons in September 1983 and Bill Etherington, then General Secretary of the Durham Colliery Mechanics Association instructed Thompsons to be the union lawyers. The Durham NUM followed later. I represented two Durham Mechanics arrested at Orgreave and one at Mansfield.
My day to day experience of representing striking miners during the period from March 1984 to March 1985 will form the basis of this presentation.

The Annual General Meeting of the North East Labour History Society, followed by Alex Niven: New Model Island: How to Build a Radical Culture Beyond the Idea of England (by Zoom, agenda and link to be circulated)
2020-09-08 19:00 (Europe/London) | Zoom
Please let us know if you would like to attend this meeting by clicking this link and giving us your email address and name. We will then contact you before the meeting with the Zoom link.
Please note that any member wishing to submit a change to the Constitution (see pages 187 – 188 of the 2019 Journal) must submit a motion in writing to the Secretary by 10 August.
The meeting will be followed by a talk by Alex Niven, Lecturer in English at Newcastle University on his recently published book, New Model Island: How to Build a Radical Culture Beyond the Idea of England

In the early twenty-first century, “Englishness” suddenly became a hot topic. A rash of art exhibitions, pop albums and coffee table books arrived on the scene, all desperate to recover England’s lost national soul. But when we sweep away the patriotic stereotypes, we begin to see that England is a country that does not — and perhaps should not — exist in any essential sense.
In this provocative text combining polemic and memoir, Alex Niven argues that the map of the British Isles should be torn apart completely as we look towards a time of radical political reform. Rejecting outdated nationalisms, Niven argues for a renovated model of culture and governance for the islands — a fluid, dynamic version of regionalism preparing the way for a new “dream archipelago”.

“One of the sharpest, most unusual critics writing today, and with this call for the end of England, he has surpassed himself. Personal, polemical and historical in equal measure, this is a strange, powerful and beautiful book.”
Owen Hatherley

Tommy Hepburn: Folk of Jarrow Commemoration on Saturday 10 October at the Joplin Monument at 10.30am.
2020-10-10 10:30 (Europe/London) | Jobling Memorial, Jarrow
Please note that the planned Memorial Service on the 17 October has been cancelled.

Fourth Tuesday. Nigel Todd will talk about The Excursionists: Who Will Fight For Garibaldi?
2020-11-24 19:00 (Europe/London) | Zoom
Join Zoom Meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84301417060?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 843 0141 7060 Passcode: [REDACTED]
The International Brigade of the 1930s was not the first venture of its kind. Garibaldi’s 1860 campaign to liberate and unify Italy also attracted international volunteers, not least from Britain. Several hundred, including about 18 from Tyneside, joined a ‘British Legion’ that supported Garibaldi in Sicily and Southern Italy.
Recruited via Joseph Cowen’s Newcastle Daily Chronicle the Tynesiders overcame attempts to block their departure, and played a part in Garibaldi’s advance on Naples to overthrow a distinctively despotic local regime.
One of the group John Eyre Macklin, wrote a vivid account of his experiences in the campaign, and of some of the people he met such as Jessie White Mario, female Radical journalist, a frequent speaker at Newcastle political meetings and known as ’the Florence Nightingale of the Garibaldian army.’
Nigel is a Newcastle City Councillor, chairs the UK Co-operative College and has published several books and articles on North East political history, including an autobiography of Joseph Cowen, and histories of anti-fascism, and anarchist and socialist land colonies.
Topic: Tyneside Volunteers for Garibaldi’s Army

North East Labour History Society, Zoom Annual Social
2020-12-08 19:00 (Europe/London) | Zoom
Peter Brabban will do his traditional, fiendish quiz.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81241889086?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 812 4188 9086
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Second Tuesday: Professor Ralph Darlington, Analysing the Contexts and Causes of the 1910-14 Labour Revolt
2021-01-12 19:00 (Europe/London) | Zoom
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85812281578?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 858 1228 1578
Passcode: [REDACTED]
The ‘Labour Unrest’ – or what more precisely should be termed ‘Labour Revolt’ – that swept Britain in the years leading up to the First World War between 1910 and 1914 was one of the most sustained, dramatic and violent explosions of industrial militancy and social conflict the country has ever experienced. Most explanations for the causes of this strike wave have tended to focus almost exclusively on economic factors, on the way in which the decline in real wages and purchasing power after 1900 and the sudden upturn in trade and employment after 1910 provided the major economic impetus for a series of wage demands that lead to strike action. Yet arguably, even if the most commonly reported single cause of strikes was pay, this hardly offers an adequate explanation, by itself, for the scale, insurgent nature, rank-and-file dynamic and broader political challenge of the industrial rebellion that swept Britain during this period.
This talk attempts to provide an understanding of the way in which there was a coalescence of a multifaceted set of interconnected contextual and casual elements (structure and agency) contributing to the process. Specifically it examines six features: the economic, industrial and social backcloth; industrial relations and trade union framework; political context; bargaining capacity; leadership and mobilisation resources; and broader zeitgeist of defiance of the authorities and rule of law. In the process, it assesses the limits and potential of George Dangerfield’s depiction in his celebrated book The Strange Death of Liberal England of a conjunction of three rebellions – by workers, women and Irish nationalists – that had the cumulative effect of placing the country on the verge of semi-revolution. And there is consideration of the extent to which workers’ readiness to engage in militant strike action depended upon the subjective element – the encouragement they received from the minority of uncompromising working class socialist and syndicalist agitators and propagandists within their own ranks.
Ralph Darlington is Emeritus Professor of Employment Relations at the University of Salford. His research is concerned with the dynamics of trade union organisation, activity and consciousness within both contemporary and historical settings. He is the author of The Dynamics of Workplace Unionism (Mansell 1994) and Radical Unionism: The Rise and Fall of Revolutionary Syndicalism (Haymarket 2013), co-author of Glorious Summer: Class Struggle in Britain 1972 (Bookmarks 2001) and editor of What’s the Point Of Industrial Relations: In Defence of Critical Social Science (2009). He is currently researching to write a book on the 1910-14 Labour Revolt to be published by Pluto Press.

Book launch: Sylvia Pankhurst Natural Born Rebel
2021-01-28 19:00 (Europe/London) | Online
Online book launch of this major new biography with author Rachel Holmes in conversation with historian Mary Davis
Register here https://www.marx-memorial-library.org.uk/event/289
Born into one of Britain’s most famous activist families, Sylvia Pankhurst was a natural rebel; a talented artist, prolific writer and a newspaper editor. A free spirit and radical visionary, history placed her in the shadow of her famous mother, Emmeline, and elder sister, Christabel. Yet Sylvia Pankhurst was the most revolutionary of them all.
Sylvia found her voice fighting militantly for votes for women, but the vote was just the beginning of her lifelong defence of human rights. From her early warnings of the rise of fascism in Europe, to her campaigning against racism and championing of the liberation struggles in Africa and India, Sylvia’s adventures in America, Soviet Russia, Scandinavia, Europe and East Africa made her a true internationalist. She was one of the great minds of the modern era, engaging with political giants, including Churchill, Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg, George Bernard Shaw, W.E.B. Du Bois and Haile Selassie.
Holmes argues that Pankhurst’s campaigning reached far beyond the suffragette movement and in Sylvia Pankhurst she interweaves the personal and political to reveal Sylvia Pankhurst as never before.
Attendees will receive the zoom link via eventbrite 24 hours in advance.

First Tuesday: Paul Gailiunas on John Marshall: Printer, Librarian and Radical
2021-02-02 19:00 (Europe/London) | Zoom
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83417499047?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 834 1749 9047
Passcode: [REDACTED]
John Marshall was very well-known in Gateshead and Newcastle in the first third of the nineteenth century, and there are references to him in a variety of contexts.
The evidence that has survived contradicts some of the assumptions made by previous authors, especially around the winter of 1816/1817, when he first became politically active. Although politics seems to have become less important to him by the mid-1820s, he was present at a political meeting in 1830, and he printed radical material until 1831, when his business collapsed and he disappears from the record.
Paul Gailiunas took early retirement from teaching in 2007 and has researched and published on a variety of topics including local history.

British Association for Local History Digital Workshop : (Postgrad students only) How to get your local history research out there!
2021-02-13 10:00 (Europe/London)
Please note that this session is only available to students registered on a recognised Masters or PhD course of study at an HEI. ECRs who are within 5 years of completing their PhD are also welcome to attend.
Details and booking
Workshop on Public Engagement and Collaborative Working (a student special) with Claire Kennan (BALH)
Practical guidance on how academic research can be communicated to wider audiences, the opportunities that are available for collaborative and partnership working and how your research can have an impact in the wider world. In particular, it will focus on the specific support and opportunities offered by BALH ranging from writing blog posts to producing podcasts, working with teachers, local history societies, museums and much more.

Professor John Bradshaw: Child poverty in the North East region. Event celebrating the life and contribution of Professor John Veit-Wilson
2021-03-02 17:30 - 19:00 (Europe/London) | You tube
Attendance details here
Professor John Veit-Wilson
Celebrating the life and contribution of Professor John Veit-Wilson and the move of the North East Child Poverty Commission to Newcastle University, this lecture will consider the evidence on the most recent trends and spatial distribution of child poverty in the North East, reflecting on the strengths and weaknesses of that evidence, in particular in the context of Covid-19. It will also include a review of the impact of the post-Covid interventions and prescribe an agenda for future action.

Professor Jonathan Bradshaw

Jonathan Bradshaw is Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at the University of York. He was appointed Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 2005 for services to child poverty and Fellow of the British Academy in 2010. He is a Board member of the Child Poverty Action Group and Chair of their Policy Committee.
Live Q&A:
The lecture will be followed by a live Q&A with the speaker. You can submit a question in advance by sending an email to public.lectures@ncl.ac.uk or during the event using YouTube Live Chat or via Twitter @InsightsNCL.
This event will be hosted on YouTube, registration is not required.

British Association for Local History Digital Webinar: How to grow your local history social media presence
2021-03-10 18:00 - 19:30 (Europe/London)
A one-hour webinar with BALH’s Social Media Fellow, Daniella Gonzalez.
Daniella will provide an introduction to the various social media platforms available and how local history societies can best use them to promote their work and engage with the wider history community.
Details and booking

Mike Fraser. History through a Northumbrian Lens: Sir William Beveridge
2021-03-13 10:00 - 11:00 (Europe/London)
History through a Northumbrian Lens: Part One; Individual Lectures Tickets, Sat 13 Mar 2021 at 10:00 | Eventbrite
Mike will examine the public and turbulent private lives of these three men in the context of key historical events:
13 March – Sir William Beveridge was the hugely popular architect of the welfare state who became Liberal MP for Berwick in 1944 only to be swept away in the Labour landslide of 1945. Mike will discuss his report, the reasons for his defeat at Berwick and his subsequent career.

Professor Ralph Darlington: British Labour Movement Solidarity in the 1913–14 Dublin Lockout
2021-03-17 14:00 - 15:30 (Europe/London) | Online
Ralph is giving this talk on behalf of the Working Class Movement Library:
https://www.wcml.org.uk/whats-on/events/online-talk-british-labour-movement-solidarity-in-the-191314-dublin-lockout/
Joining details to follow on the above link.

Mike Fraser. History through a Northumbrian Lens: Sir Edward Grey
2021-03-20 10:00 - 11:00 (Europe/London)
History through a Northumbrian Lens: Part One; Individual Lectures Tickets, Sat 13 Mar 2021 at 10:00 | Eventbrite
Mike will examine the public and turbulent private lives of these three men in the context of key historical events:
20 March – Sir Edward Grey was Liberal MP for Berwick for over 30 years. He remains Britain’s longest serving Foreign Secretary and famously saw ‘the lamps going out’ in 1914. Mike will discuss his rise to power, his role in the ‘July crisis’ of 1914 and his subsequent career.

Mike Fraser. History through a Northumbrian Lens: Sir Charles Trevelyan
2021-03-27 10:00 - 11:00 (Europe/London)
History through a Northumbrian Lens: Part One; Individual Lectures Tickets, Sat 13 Mar 2021 at 10:00 | Eventbrite
Mike will examine the public and turbulent private lives of these three men in the context of key historical events:
27 March – Sir Charles Trevelyan was a Liberal MP from a similar aristocratic background to Sir Edward Grey who opposed his policies in 1914 and bravely campaigned for peace. Later he resigned from the first two Labour cabinets because they were ‘too right-wing’. Subsequently he devoted himself to his estate which he famously ‘gave away to the nation’ in 1941.

First Tuesday: Mike Fraser will talk about Sir William Beveridge – the Man, the Report and the Berwick Division
2021-04-06 19:00 - 20:30 (Europe/London) | Zoom
This meeting replaces Hannah Kent’s planned talk: “One Aim, One God, One Destiny”? which has been cancelled.
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Sir William Beveridge was the hugely popular architect of the welfare state who became Liberal MP for Berwick in 1944 only to be swept away in the Labour landslide of 1945. Mike will discuss his early life, his report, the reasons for his defeat at Berwick and his subsequent career.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86991301904?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 869 9130 1904
Passcode: [REDACTED]
Mike lives in Berwick-upon-Tweed and writes and lectures on Northumberland political life.

Mayday - Saturday 1 May
2021-05-01 11:30 - 15:30 (Europe/London) | Facebook
Tyne & Wear May Day Committee are organising a big online event tomorrow, the outline programme is below and this is the Facebook link:
https://www.facebook.com/events/265356238636325/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22mechanism%22%3A%22search_results%22%2C%22surface%22%3A%22search%22%7D]%7D
As many of you will know, the Covid restrictions mean that we cannot hold the normal Tyne & Wear May Day march and rally this year, but instead we are planning an online festival on Saturday 1 May. It will be broadcast on a number of Facebook pages, including Tyne & Wear Mayday Rally, and the programme will be something like this:
11.30 – Welcome, and historical film/photos, with music
12.00 – Invited speakers: Dave Ward (CWU general secretary), Chi Onwurah MP, Fran Heathcote (PCS president) and Jamie Driscoll (North of Tyne Mayor). To be followed by a Q&A session.
13.00 – Greetings received, to be followed by more historical material
13.40 – International Contributions
13.55 – Music spot
14.10 – Anti-racism/BLM/Asylum Rights: local speakers
14.25 – Defending democracy: local speakers
14.40 – Culture spot, including poets reading their own work
15.00 – People’s Assembly/Unemployment Fightback/Tyne & Wear Needs a Pay Rise: local speakers and videos
15.15 – Music
15.30 – Wrap up

Durham University: Radical Histories panel discussion
2021-05-04 17:30 - 18:30 (Europe/London) | Facebook
Radical Histories, an online panel discussion as part of the History Now! series of public talks organised between the Durham University History Department and the Gala Theatre, Durham, takes place on Tuesday 4 May between 5.30 and 6.30pm. Register here – all welcome!
Here’s the link on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/events/1051430605260613
Radical political movements today are often articulated via references to historic struggles in the past. Activists look to lost comrades and lost friends, to generations of forebears that can offer powerful examples for the present.
Finding friends in the past provides emotional sustenance and historic legitimacy for radical movements, and uncovering radical pasts is a way of disrupting histories and narratives that insist on the marginalisation of certain stories. Study of these pasts can reveal the agency of ordinary people, the brutality of elites, and the victories achieved – as well as defeats suffered – by past radical movements.
John Charlton, Laura Forster, and Theo Williams will discuss what radical history means to them in their work on labour history in the north east, transnational political activism in the nineteenth century, and Pan-Africanism and anti-imperialism. How might radical histories inform the radical movements of today? Can academic history be ‘radical’? What role do regional historical societies and community organisations play in preserving radical pasts?
The panellists will consider all of these questions and more as they explore the uses of radical history, its limitations, and its futures.

First Tuesday: Tosh Warwick will talk about Middlesbrough’s Steel Magnates in the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries.
2021-05-04 19:00 - 20:30 (Europe/London) | Zoom
Topic: Middlesbrough’s Steel Magnates, Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88010819818?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 880 1081 9818
Passcode: [REDACTED]
The history of modern Teesside has been inextricably linked to the industrialists that led the businesses, shaped the communities and established new charitable and philanthropic initiatives at the heart of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century manufacturing district.
In this talk by Heritage Unlocked’s Dr Tosh Warwick, he explores the role of the industrial, urban elite in everyday life, civic culture and manufacturing enterprises along the River Tees.
Focusing on the Bell and Dorman families, he reveals their role in a range of developments still part of the local area today, including the Tees Transporter Bridge, civic buildings and museums.
Dr Tosh Warwick joined Manchester Metropolitan University in January 2019 as Research Associate (Impact) in the History Research Centre. Tosh was previously Research Associate in Urban Studies at the University of Glasgow, lectured at Huddersfield, Leeds Beckett and Teesside Universities and held a number of roles in the heritage sector including as Heritage Development Officer at Middlesbrough Council where he contributed to a number of major Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) supported regeneration projects.

Second Tuesday: Tony Fox will talk about Teesside International Brigade
2021-06-08 19:00 - 20:30 (Europe/London)
Tony Fox, a member of the International Brigades Memorial Trust who lives in Billingham will give a talk on ‘A complete history of the memorial plaque to the Teesside International Brigades’ on Tuesday 8 June at 7.00pm
Topic: Teesside International Brigades Plaque
Time: Jun 8, 2021 07:00 PM London
Join Zoom Meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87335888047?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 873 3588 8047
Passcode: [REDACTED]
The Teesside International Brigades Memorial is an oak board with a triangular pediment top. The lettering and International Brigade crest are hand painted. It shows the International Brigades crest, the names of ten volunteers who fell, an inscription and a list of XV Brigade Battle Honours.
The text of the inscription reads:
TO DEFEND LIBERTY . . . they typified the real Britons’ hatred of the tyrant, they went to safeguard peace and the arts of peace that humanity might go forward. They went to help the defenceless Spanish people fight the invading armies. They went to save their loved ones and us from the horrors of fascism because they loved peace they went out to fight from . . . TEES-SIDE
The idea for a memorial arose during a 1939 meeting in the offices of the Young Communist League (YCL) in Middlesbrough, on Marton Road, it was to be a memorial to their friends and comrades who lost their lives fighting fascism with the International Brigades.

Second Tuesday: Ruth Cohen will speak about ‘The Life and Work of Margaret Llewelyn Davies: Co-operative Movement Activist, Feminist, Socialist and Pacifist’.
2021-07-13 19:00 - 20:30 (Europe/London) | Zoom
Zoom link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82172314164?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 821 7231 4164
Passcode: [REDACTED]
Margaret Llewelyn Davies was General Secretary of the Women’s Co-operative Guild between 1889 and 1921, a tumultuous period of social and political change.
Her leadership was crucial to the Guild’s development into a unique national organisation of working class wives and mothers; as the Russian revolutionary Alexandra Kollontai said, it gave the lie to the accepted wisdom that housewives could not be politicised.
In her time Margaret was a well known and highly respected campaigner both within and outside the Co-operative movement, but she has since been undeservedly forgotten.
This talk will explore Margaret’s fascinating life, her contribution to the Guild’s development and the pioneering campaigns which she led, reflecting her particular combination of feminism and ethical socialism. These ranged from pressing for a Co-operative boycott of ‘sweated’ goods and for better pay for women employees to battling for votes for women, for liberalised divorce laws, state maternity provision – and more.
To illustrate it we will discuss the campaign to extend Co-operation to poor areas, in the course of which she worked with the local Co-operative society in an experimental store and settlement in Sunderland.
Ruth is the author of Margaret Llewelyn Davies: With Women for a New World. Publisher’s information: “Margaret Llewelyn Davies (1861-1944), a co-operator, feminist and socialist, was well known in her time as the outstanding leader of the Women’s Co-operative Guild. This first full scale biography chronicles her life and achievements, intertwining activity among working class women with her personal story. Margaret Llewelyn Davies’ system of education, discussion and campaigning opened doors. Women became impressive activists, committed to change both in the co-operative movement and the wider public world. As one Guild member put it, ‘from a shy, nervous woman the Guild made me a fighter’. The Guild flourished, developing what has been termed a distinctively working class feminism. By 1914 the Manchester Guardian could describe it as ‘probably the most remarkable women’s organisation in the world’. The Guild pressed for boycotting ‘sweated’ goods, supported trade unions, battled for a minimum wage, fought for the vote, new divorce laws and for state maternity benefit to be paid to the wife. Cohen draws on original research: in newspapers, the women’s pages of the Co-operative News, Guild records, unpublished papers, and more. This book breaks new ground, providing not only compelling insights into Margaret Llewelyn Davies’ life and politics, but a fresh perspective on working class women’s activism, rediscovering their words, lives, ideas and campaigns.”

Plaque Unveiling, William Parker (1790-1858), Labourer, Chelsea Pensioner, and Chartist. Cumberland Arms, Byker, Newcastle
2021-08-13 11:00 - 12:00 (Europe/London) | Cumberland Arms, James Place Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 1LD
William Parker was a leading advocate of the ‘The People’s Charter’ in the 1830s and later championed the rights of pensioners and the poor in general.
The commemorative plaque will be unveiled by the Lord Mayor of Newcastle at the Cumberland Arms public house, James Place Street (off Byker Bank), Ouseburn, Newcastle upon Tyne.
Directions: Byker Metro Station or the bus stop outside Morrisons on Shields Road – Byker Bank is off the roundabout at the bottom of Shields Road; James Place Street is near the top of Byker Bank on the right (north) side of the road.
