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
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
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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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
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 | 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 | 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.

Third Tuesday: Professor Alison Fell, Striking Women: Women Trade Unionists in France and Britain during and after the First World War
2021-08-17 19:00 - 20:30 | Zoom
This talk will consider why and how women went on strike during the First World War. It will also explore the longer-term legacies of wartime industrial action, considering in particular some case-studies of French and British working-class women whose initiation into trade unionism during the war led to political careers in the 1920s and 1930s.
Professor Alison Fell is Dean of the School of Histories, Languages and Cultures at Liverpool University
Zoom link to be added.

Independent Labour Publications: The future of the union and the case for UK Federalism
2021-09-03 19:00 - 20:30 | Zoom
From Independent Labour Publications
With tensions rising between the Westminster government and the devolved governments in Cardiff and Edinburgh it’s an opportune time to consider The future of the union and the case for UK Federalism and I’m pleased to say this will be theme of the ILP meeting this Friday 3 September at 7.00pm.
Our speakers will be:

Vince Mills, Secretary of Glasgow Kelvin CLP and a member of the Red Paper Collective on Scottish politics after the Holyrood elections
Mick Antoniw, Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution in the Welsh Government onPolitics in Wales after the Senedd elections, and
Pauline Bryan, member of Glasgow Kelvin CLP and Convenor of the Red Paper Collective on The case for UK federalism. Pauline is a Labour Peer appointed by Jeremy Corbyn as part of a group who are committed to the abolition of the House of Lords

And here is the link:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86185687922?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 861 8568 7922
Passcode: [REDACTED]
Please note that this meeting is not being promoted on social media.
Look forward to seeing you then.
Best wishes,
David Connolly
Chair, Independent Labour Publications
https://www.independentlabour.org.uk/

Berwick Literary Festival, Mike Fraser lectures: History Through a Northumbrian Lens
2021-09-04 - 2021-10-03 | Zoom
Book at http://berwickea.org/event/history-through-a-northumbrian-lens-part-two/
This is a series of three one-hour lectures by Mike Fraser, organised in association with Berwick Literary Festival. Patrons of the Festival are entitled to a 50% discount on tickets for the full course (see Tickets). This listing is for the full course; you can book individual lectures here.
The lectures are on Saturdays: Sept 4, Sept 18 and Oct 2.
Our earlier event, History through a Northumbrian Lens: Part One looked at Sir William Beveridge, Sir Edward Grey and Sir Charles Trevelyan.
In Part Two Mike will discuss John MacKay Wilson, Lord Walter Runciman, Thomas Burt and Mabel Philipson to similarly illuminate key issues in British history from electoral reform to the position of women in society.
John MacKay Wilson, best known for his Tales, was also a successful Editor of the Berwick Advertiser. Discussion of his powerful editorials will provide a radical perspective on events at the time of the Great Reform Act 1832.
Lord Walter Runciman from Doxford Hall was a rather undistinguished politician when he was sent by Chamberlain to Czechoslovakia in August 1938, but his subsequent report was crucial to the latter’s “Peace in our time” Munich agreement with Hitler.
Finally, Mike discusses the careers of two significant Northumbrian MPs. When Thomas Burt was elected as Liberal MP for Morpeth in 1874, he was the first working class man to enter Parliament. In 1923 Mabel Philipson replaced her husband as MP for Berwick to become the third female MP to sit in the Commons. The first to be elected, an Irish Nationalist, had refused to take her seat.
Sept 4 – John MacKay Wilson
Sept 18 – Lord Walter Runciman
Oct 2 – Thomas Burt and Mabel Philipson
Mike will deliver illustrated talks and there will be ample time for debate about the contributions of these individuals during crucial periods of British history.
Lectures will be delivered via Zoom. If you haven’t used Zoom before, please go to www.zoom.us and look at the tutorials. Once you have booked, you will find the Zoom invitation in the Online Event Page on Eventbrite. You will also receive an email with the invitation 24 hours before the event. If you can’t find the invitation, please email berwickea@gmail.com.
If you book this course online, we will hold your personal data in accordance with our privacy policy. If you do not wish us to hold your personal data, please book by post (see www.berwickea.org) and do not supply an email address.

North East Labour History Annual General Meeting. Huw Beynon and Ray Hudson (both former Durham University) on their new book, The Shadow of The Mine
2021-09-07 19:00 - 20:30 | TBD
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88917964686?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 889 1796 4686
Passcode: [REDACTED]
The rise and fall of Britain’s most important industry. No one personified the age of industry more than the miners. The Shadow of the Mine tells the story of King Coal in its heyday—and what happened to mining communities after the last pits closed.
Coal was central to the British economy, powering its factories and railways. It carried political weight, too. In the eighties the miners risked everything in a year-long strike against Thatcher’s shutdowns. Defeat foretold the death of their industry. Tens of thousands were cast onto the labour market with a minimum amount of advice and support.
Today, British politics all of a sudden revolves around the coalfield constituencies which lent their votes to Boris Johnson’s Conservatives in 2019. Even in the Welsh Valleys, where the “red wall” still stands, support for the Labour Party has halved in a generation.
Huw Beynon and Ray Hudson draw on decades of research to chronicle these momentous changes through the words of the people who lived through them.

Frank Palmeri will talk about Newcastle born eighteenth century satirist and utopian writer Thomas Spence
2021-10-06 14:00 - 15:00 | Zoom
Thomas Spence has been recognised as the most important socialist thinker of the 1790s. He was also a strong satirist of aristocracy and of land-holders generally.
This talk will consider Spence as a satirist and utopian writer, and will conclude by considering parallels between the thought and writing of Spence and of William Morris a century later.
Frank Palmeri is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Miami.
To join us for this talk, which is running only online, please click on the link below shortly before 2pm on Wednesday:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86919364393?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 869 1936 4393
Passcode: [REDACTED]
The talk will also be recorded for later viewing on our YouTube channel.
Thomas Spence
Thomas Spence was born in Newcastle in 1750. Spence was the leading English revolutionary of his day, with an unbudgeable commitment to individual and press freedom and the common ownership of the land.
His tracts, such as The Rights of Man (Spence was, perhaps, the first to use the phrase) and The Rights of Infants, along with his utopian visions of ‘Crusonia’ and ‘Spensonia’, were the most far-reaching radical statements of the period. Spence was born in poverty and died the same way, after long periods of imprisonment, in 1814.
Although sometimes hailed as England’s ‘first modern socialist’, Spence is not easily corralled by later ideologies. He was a mortal enemy of tyranny and what he called ‘giantism’ of all kinds.

Tyneside Irish Festival: Film – Kathleen and Me (Talk and Q and A from writer and actor Janet Behan)
2021-10-14 19:00 - 21:30 | Tyneside Irish Centre, 43 Gallowgate, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4SG, United Kingdom
A film by Janet Behan about her grandmother, Kathleen Behan. Not just a portrait of this extraordinary woman, but a vivid, eye-witness account of the birth of the Irish Republic. It’s full of great stories and songs, some of them written by Kathleen’s brother, Peadar, writer of the lyrics to The Soldier’s Song. Kathleen also talks candidly and movingly about her son, “little poet,” Brendan.
At the age of 91, Kathleen Behan was persuaded to record her memories on tape by her son Brian. That same year she recorded the ballads and rebel songs she’d been singing all her life. The memories became a book, the songs an LP.
Kathleen lived through the Easter Rising, the War of Independence and the Civil war. She took an active role in the fight for an Irish Republic, surviving near starvation and grinding poverty and holding her family together through thick and thin. Her ‘golden boy’ Brendan, became famous worldwide for his plays and books only to die tragically young. But, as Kathleen says, “You may as well sing grief as cry it…”Combining source material with her own memories of her grandmother, Janet Behan with Jessica Higgs have created ‘Kathleen and Me’ — a memoir of this indomitable woman.
October 14 @ 7:00 pm – 9:30 pm – Tyneside Irish Centre. This event is on a pay as you feel basis. Suggested donation £5. Doors open 7pm. Talk and Film 8pm.

Two Book Launch Events: Ed Waugh's Geordie Plays (Volume One)
2021-10-16 - 2021-10-17 | Newcastle City Library
From Ed Waugh
I worked with Dave Harker who kindly allowed me to use his incredible research for my play The Great Joe Wilson. Many of you came to see the show (and Mr Corvan’s Music Hall, based on Dave’s excellent book about Ned Corvan) so you may be interested in Geordie Plays (Volume One).
The book comprising Hadaway Harry, The Great Joe Wilson and Carrying David is out now and was recently included in a small time capsule buried by Newcastle Cathedral. It won’t be opened until June 2121, which will mean these fantastic stories of forgotten Geordie heroes will be available for future generations. I doubt I’ll be around to see that, though.
If you want to attend the official book launch in October (Saturday 16) at Newcastle City Library there will be two talks. One at 2pm which will be an illustrated talk and costs nothing. The second will take place at 7pm and will include songs and entertainment from the cast. A show! Tickets for this performance will be £3.
Obviously, this is subject to what happens with the pandemic and could change but we are very confident the talks will go ahead on that date. If you let me know how many tickets you need and the time (2pm or 7pm, or both) I’ll pass your email on to Derek Tree from Tyne Bridge Publishing so you are guaranteed a ticket(s).
Carrying David is touring the North East in September and Hadaway Harry next June. Both are going to London.
https://www.wisecrackproductions.co.uk/carrying-david
https://www.hadawayharry.co.uk/tour-dates
You may also be interested in two new plays – Wor Bella and Howay The Lasses. Both deal with munitionette footballers in World War One. Hundreds of women’s football teams were formed nationally (many dozens in the North East) and raised money for charity. Matches attracted hundreds, even thousands, of spectators, including 20,000 at St James’ Park Newcastle in 1918 for the Munitionettes Cup final and 23,000 at Ayresome Park, Middlesbrough, for the replay.
The story of these brave and selfless working class women (munitionettes) who saved the war effort in WW1 is incredible and intriguing – a story that has been largely ignored, especially by the educational establishment.
Howay the Lasses is a Durham Gala production and a generic story, based on actual events locally and nationally.
https://galadurham.co.uk/galapost/howay-the-lasses
Wor Bella is a Wisecrack production about Bella Reay, the star of Blyth Spartans Ladies who scored 133 goals in 30 matches and is known as “the Alan Shearer of her day”.
www.worbella.co.uk
Both shows will rock!
Ed
https://www.wisecrackproductions.co.uk/
The book can be bought from the Tyne Bridge Publishing websitehttps://www.newcastle.gov.uk/www.tynebridgepublishing.org.uk and online at Waterstones, Blackwell’s, WH Smiths, Amazon, Wordery and Foyles.
It is available in shops: Waterstones, Meander, The Baltic and Newcastle City Library (soon).
Other shops and museum shops around the region will be supplied by Northern Heritage, a book distributor.

Taste of Africa: Two Events
2021-10-16 - 2021-10-23 | Zoom
Taste of Africa events is an annual celebration of Black History Month in Tees Valley. The events are aimed at celebrating Black History Month, promoting diversity and inclusion in the Tees Valley.
This year due to Covid restrictions all our events will be held virtually with the aim of returning to normality next year. See: www.facebook.com/tasteofafrica.northeast
The Taste of Africa Showcase (Virtual) in its 17th year will take place on the Saturday 16th October 2021 6pm-9pm. This hugely popular event is a showcase of traditional performances, local talents and artists, music, designer African fashion show, food, youth dance groups and more. Also as part of the event we will also showcase the inspirational project Irin Ajo Mi – My Journey developed by our young people celebrating the journeys of African elders in Tees Valley.
Taste of Africa is holding its 7th Annual Black History Youth Awards Dinner (Virtual) on Friday 22nd October 2021 from 6pm-9pm. This event recognises achievement of young people and promotes positive role models in the community. This year our Award is focused on Resilience. The evening will feature young people doing great things and also recognise past recipients who have gone on to achieve great heights.

Teakisi Woman Talk - 2021: A Black History Month session focusing on African women and the community
2021-10-16 14:30 - 17:00 | The Common Room, Westgate Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 1SE
Teakisi is happy to announce the third annual Teakisi Woman Talk conference. This event takes place in October, which is also Black History Month. The annual Teakisi Woman Talk allows black women, plus the general public to have a conversation on topics that really matter to us – however uncomfortable they may be.
You can book tickets here.

Book launch Events in Durham, Stockton and Newcastle: 'African Lives in Northern England: From Roman Times to the 21st Century'
2021-10-17 - 2021-10-24 | Durham, Stockton and Newcastle
This booklet, authored by the African Lives in Northern England project and edited by Beverley Prevatt Goldstein, celebrates the history of Black lives in northern England and dispels the myth that the North East is exclusively white and monocultural. From Septimus Severus, the Roman Emperor, to 19th century Cumbrian John Kent who was believed to be Britain’s first black policeman, to 21st century Newcastle MP Chinyelu ‘Chi’ Onwurah, this booklet reveals a rich and diverse history.

Durham: This booklet will be launched on October 17th at Durham Book Festival. Click here for more information.
Stockton: A talk and discussion will take place at Stockton Reference Library, October 21st, 6-7.30pm. For more information and to book your place at £3 contact 01642 528079, reference.library@stockton.gov.uk
Newcastle: A free mini-presentation will be held at Newcastle Central Library on October 23rd, 3-3.45pm.

Each talk will be tailored to its location and signed copies of the booklet will be available to purchase. Booklets can also be purchased from Caroline Afolabi-Deleu at caroline@s4a.org.uk at £5.00 with £2.00 for packaging and postage This is a limited edition and copies will be sent out on a first-come, first-serve basis as payments are received.

Berwick Literary Festival: Michael Taylor - How and Why the British Defended Slavery
2021-10-17 17:00 - 18:00 | Zoom
When the Anti-Slavery Society was founded in 1823, it was confronted by a formidable lobby comprising slaveholders, merchants, politicians, journalists and intellectuals. This talk explores the ferocious campaign of the British pro-slavery lobby to preserve the institution of colonial slavery – even, in 1833, securing £20m in compensation for the slaveholders.
Michael is the author of The Interest: How the British Establishment Resisted the Abolition of Slavery
Registration will be from 1 September: https://berwickliteraryfestival.com/

Tyneside Irish Centre, Dr Martin O’Donoghue will talk about The Anglo Irish Treaty and its Consequences
2021-10-19 19:30 - 21:30 | Tyneside Irish Centre, 43 Gallowgate, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4SG, United Kingdom
“Full Canadian powers” or “Ireland’s right, full independence and nothing short of it”? The Anglo-Irish Treaty and its consequences.
On 6 December 1921, Irish negotiators signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty providing for the establishment of the Irish Free State as a dominion of the British Empire. One of the most controversial documents in modern Irish history, the Treaty led to a split in the Sinn Féin party, and ultimately, civil war. Examining the nature and measure of sovereignty desired by different Irish nationalists imagining self-government, this lecture will consider the arguments made for and against the Treaty, and analyse the longer-term significance of both the document and the split in the decades after 1922.
Dr Martin O’Donoghue is a teaching associate in Modern British and Irish History at The University of Sheffield and has previously held appointments at Northumbria University and the University of Limerick.
His research examines the dynamics of political activism in modern Ireland, the development of party politics, Irish-British relations, the Irish revolutionary period (1912-23), and commemoration. His first book, The Legacy of the Irish Parliamentary Party in Independent Ireland, 1922-1949, was published by Liverpool University Press in 2019 and was highly commended for the British Association of Irish Studies Book Prize.
October 19 @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm at Tyneside Irish Centre, 43 Gallowgate, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4SG
Free

Celebrating Black History Month - Film Screening @ Culture Lab Newcastle, Stand Up to Racism North East
2021-10-23 17:00 - 18:30 | The Culture Lab, Newcastle University
Stand Up to Racism – North East are hosting a double-bill of documentary film screenings on Saturday 23 October at Culture Lab in Newcastle University. The events starts at 5pm. They will be screening the award-winning short film ‘The Felling of Colston’ (2020 / 10mins) by Arthur Cauty, about the magnificent toppling of the Colston statue in Bristol in the summer of 2020. This will be followed by a rare screening of ‘The People’s Account’ (1986 / 50 mins), a hard-hitting account of police racism in the 1980s, with first person testimonies of the Broadwater Farm uprising which was sparked by police shootings of innocent black women.
You can book tickets here.

Black History Now!
2021-10-26 17:30 - 18:30 | Zoom
Black History Now! is an online panel discussion that reflects on the state of the field in Black British History and affirms its centrality to the discipline of History more widely. What is going on in Black History in Durham and the North East? How can historians in Durham and the wider region continue to build the field? And what are the implications of recent developments in the field for the movement to decolonise the curriculum?
The panel includes the following speakers: Stefanella Julius, Nkechi Managwu, and Emilie Tenbroek are historians studying at Durham and Decolonising the Curriculum Interns with the Decolonise Durham Network.
Sean Creighton is an independent historian who has worked extensively on Black British History, radical history, and the history of slavery and abolition in the North East, including his role in the Tyne & Wear Remembering Slavery project in 2007 and North East Popular Politics Project in 2010-13. He maintains a blog on History and Social Action.
Liam Liburd is Assistant Professor of Black British History at Durham University. His research interests lie in the history, impact and legacy of Empire, decolonisation and race/racism in twentieth-century Britain. Recently he published the article ‘Thinking Imperially: The British Fascisti and the Politics of Empire, 1923–35’ in Twentieth Century British History and featured in the BBC Radio 4 series Britain’s Fascist Thread.
To register for the Black History Now! event, please click here.

NELH Tuesday Meeting: Dr Cathy Hunt will talk about 'Righting the Wrong: the life and work of Mary Macarthur, 1880-1921'
2021-10-26 19:00 - 20:30 | Zoom
Mary Macarthur, trade unionist and socialist, died 100 years ago in 1921. In this talk, her biographer, Dr Cathy Hunt, looks at the fascinating life and work of this pioneering leader, who founded the National Federation of Women Workers, which improved working conditions for thousands of some of the worst paid women in Britain. Cathy will draw attention to the struggles and barriers that faced women workers in the early 20th century whilst also highlighting their successes and strength in solidarity.
Interwoven with this is the absorbing life story of Mary Macarthur, on her journey from girlhood in Scotland to London activist and national leader, through to her tragically early death aged just 40.
Cathy Hunt is an independent community historian and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Her research focuses on British labour and social history, with emphasis on women and work. Her publications includes a history of the National Federation of Women Workers, a biography of Mary Macarthur and a history of women’s lives in Coventry.
Zoom details to be circulated closer to the time.

Newcastle: Spanish Civil War Commemoration Event
2021-10-30 11:00 - 12:00 | Grounds of Newcastle Civic Centre
From Martin Levy

The Communist Party is planning, in conjunction with members of the International Brigade Memorial Trust, to repeat last year’s North East commemoration events for the ‘Volunteers for Liberty’ from the North East who gave their lives in Spain.
The Newcastle event will be at the International Brigade memorial in the grounds of the Civic Centre at 11.00am on Saturday 30 October.
The event will be relatively short, and will involve speeches, poetry, the reading of the names of the fallen.

Middlesbrough: Spanish Civil War Commemoration Event
2021-10-31 14:00 - 15:00 | Dorman Museum, Linthorpe Rd, Middlesbrough, TS5 6LA
From Martin Levy

The Communist Party is planning, in conjunction with members of the International Brigade Memorial Trust, to repeat last year’s North East commemoration events for the ‘Volunteers for Liberty’ from the North East who gave their lives in Spain.
The Middlesbrough event will be outside the Dorman Museum at 2.00pm on Sunday 31 October.
The event will be relatively short, and will involve speeches, poetry, the reading of the names of the fallen, and the laying of wreaths (in Middlesbrough, in the Tees by the Newport Bridge).

Durham University History Department and Gala Theatre: History Now! Coreen McGuire will talk about ‘Invisible Disability in Coalmining Communities’,
2021-11-16 17:30 - 18:30 | Zoom
From: Dr Tom Hamilton, Associate Professor in Early Modern European History, Durham University
The next event in the History Now! series of public talks, organised between the Durham University History Department and the Gala Theatre, is Coreen McGuire’s lecture on ‘Invisible Disability in Coalmining Communities’, which takes place via Zoom between 5.30 and 6.30pm next Tuesday 16 November.
All welcome! The link for registration is here.
Dr Coreen McGuire is Lecturer in Twentieth-Century British History at Durham University and author of Measuring Difference, Numbering Normal: Setting the Standards for Disability in the Interwar Period, published by Manchester University Press in 2020. Coreen’s research towards this book contributed to the Life of Breath project and her award-winning article on ‘The categorisation of hearing loss through telephony in inter-war Britain’ is available via open access here.
Here is an abstract for the talk on 16 November: Why was it so difficult for mineworkers and their families to get compensation for illness and disabilities caused by their work? The modern category of disability has been linked (especially by disabled activists) to industrialization and the needs of the labour market. However, historians have challenged this ‘industrialization thesis’ by providing evidence of the ubiquity and visibility of disability in British mining communities. Yet there was a significant hierarchy of disability in the coalmining compensation context. Everyday experiences of breathlessness were not categorised or recorded in the same way that accidents leading to amputations were. The same holds true for disability/ illnesses that were fluctuating, progressive, actively concealed (potentially with the use of hidden prosthesis), stigmatised (such as psychological disability) or associated with malingering (such as miner’s nystagmus). These kinds of experiences were only visible in exceptional cases, and it is less clear that they were either accepted or normalized. In this talk, Coreen McGuire shows how such contested compensation cases reveal hidden disability managed through networks of friends, family, and community.

WEA Talk by John Stirling: William Morris – Past, Present and Future
2021-11-20 10:00 - 13:00 | Brunswick Methodist Church, Brunswick Place, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7BJ
From Joanna Keith, Workers Educational Association.
William Morris – Past, Present and Future
A talk by John Stirling, Vice Chair of the William Morris Society on Saturday 20 November from 10.00am to 1.00pm at the Brunswick Methodist Church, Brunswick Place, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7BJ (entrance at the side of the Fenwicks Building)
Course Code: C2527355
Fee: £9.60p
Booking the course can be done through enrolling online by clicking on the link above or phoning 0300 303 3464 and quoting the course code.
Attendees may be entitled to a free place for this course if they are in receipt of a means tested benefit or they could get help towards their fees if they have a low personal salary or low household income.

Massimiliano Papini (Northumbria University) will talk about: The Idea of Japan in Victorian Charity Bazaars: Fundraising, Orientalism and Transculturality in the North East of England, 1867—1912
2021-11-22 18:00 - 19:30 | Zoom
Please book here: https://www.history.ac.uk/events/idea-japan-victorian-charity-bazaars-fundraising-orientalism-and-transculturality-north-east
Beyond international expositions and musical operettas such as The Mikado(1885) or The Geisha(1896), the other type of Japan-themed public event in which Victorian people experienced a transcultural encounter with Japan was the charity bazaar. Becoming popular in Britain in the early nineteenth century, the charity bazaar was a temporary, fundraising event which relied mainly on voluntary work, generally offered by local ladies, in both organising stalls and supplying each of them with the objects to put on sale. The revenue raised in these bazaars served to support a designated cause which might be in aid of hospitals, schools, missionary societies, and religious institutions. In order to attract visitors and supporters, these philanthropic events drew heavily on entertainments, including musicians, dancers, and actors, as well as elaborate decorations following an over-arching theme. Foreign locations were among the most common of these themes, thus – for many Victorians attending – a charity bazaar provided a chance to have first contact with objects from an exogenous culture.
Drawing upon newspaper articles and archive material, this seminar will investigate how Japan was represented in philanthropic events in the North East of England through the presence and consumption of Japanese goods. In response to the heightened fascination with Japan in the 1880s, charity bazaars started to be fitted up as a Japanese traditional village, coming to function for Victorians as an effective vehicle for imaginary travel and shaping their “tourist gaze.” With this regard, the stereotyped image of Japan disseminated by British decorators was instrumental in attracting a wide audience, transforming the “Orientalist” theme of Japanese Village into an appropriate setting to even promote very local endeavours such as charity campaigns which were completely unrelated to Japan, its culture, and its people. In addition, the common practice of wearing Japanese costumes by local volunteers also reveals that charity bazaars incorporated an ambivalent transcultural nature. While donning kimonos by British individuals in local events inevitably erased the Japanese body from the popular representation of Japan, it simultaneously contributed to naturalising the Asian “Otherness” in Britain, allowing stallholders in the North Eastto promote their public persona in line with the late Victorian, cosmopolitan taste and fashionability. In other words, this seminar will explore the way in which fundraising practices and voluntary activities played crucial roles as mediators between local communities and transnational trends such as the “Western” fascination with Japan.
